Tempting Inferno
by Taloola1x
Summary: After another rejection from the gummy prince, Fionna finds herself in a fiery situation when her sister tries to help, bringing havoc into Fionna's life along with a new, hot tempered Prince. Misunderstandings, romance and hurt accompany the two as they try to find a way to free the Prince once and for all...
1. Chapter 1

1: New Beginnings, Old Stories

A horizon in the distance is the only sign of light, the setting sun casting an orange hue across the land of Aaa, the greens and pinks becoming darker, more defined in their tones as the day turns into night and the wind picks up speed, urged on by the oncoming darkness. Rolling hills beckon the last remnants of sunlight, the grass swaying easily back and forth, rustling slightly as the smell of pollen and sweetness permeates the air.

The rays land on the blonde head of Fionna, her bunny hat protecting her from the bite of the wind as she leans back facing the sun as it shines in the distance. Its warmth is nice, and after a day like today, Fionna needs the time out.

Cake yawns beside her, stretching out before curling up on the grass, her large eyes staring up at Fionna, "It's getting late, Fionna baby, maybe it's time we head back before we're faced with another set of monsters," she shivers, fur standing on edge.

"Yeah yeah, I hear you." standing up, Fionna stretches, putting away her sword with a metallic zing.

"Thank goodness, I was starting to think we would never go home, there's only so much Aaa I can take," Cake stretches up, her magical abilities allowing her body to extend to incredible heights. Fionna clambers up with ease sitting on her back, and they coast easily back the way they came. The quietness has Cakes looking up, her eyes just catching the top of Fionna's glum head.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"Nuthin, nothing," Fionna sings.

"Is it a certain prince?"

Fionna ignores this, instead scanning the oncoming trees.

"Ooh it is, hmm, is it a certain gummy prince?"

Fionna shakes her head, "Cake."

"What? You know baby, I haven't seen him since our last adventure when we had to deliver those cream puffs to the cloud kingdom," Cake smiles, "Well, the one cream puff."

"Yeah," Fionna sighs dreamily, "That adventure was a bit, I dunno, lame," she shudders.

"Lame?!" Cake twists her head, "Girl we ate so many cream puffs I'm surprised we didn't turn into one!"

Fionna grins, her blue eyes lighting up, "That part was awesome, but the other bits, not so much."

The tree house, an impressive structure that boasts several flights looms in the distance and they both relax, eyes drooping as Cake picks up the pace, her body bounding forwards and Fionna digs her fingers into her fur. They reach it in record time and Fionna flips down, dancing to the door as Cake shrinks to normal size.

"Hey, Cake," Fionna says, coming to a halt, a note sits on the door, swirly writing greeting their eyes, "It's a note from GB."

"Ooh read it!"

Fionna snatches it from the door, "_Ladies, my humblest apologies for it seems I may have missed you for the past few days_."

Cake coos and Fionna rolls her eyes, her cheeks reddening.

"_I have been meaning to send you these invitations to my annual sticky ball, everyone will be there and I hope you too, can attend_."

Cake grabs the note before Fionna can react, "Hey!"

"Shushers," Cake slaps her hand away, "I'm just checking for myself!"

"Whatever," Fionna shrugs, slipping into the tree house with exaggerated care, her eyes scanning the dark floor filled with countless amount of treasure from their adventures. Entering slowly, she holds up her hands, karate chops at the ready.

"BMO, attack!"

The little robot flings itself towards her and Fionna tuck and rolls as Cake switches the light on.

"Darn," BMO says, kicking the floor with tiny feet.

Fionna smirks, "Better look next time BMO."

Cake stretches them up to the main floor and drops them, still clutching the note, "Lord monochromicorn is going to be there, I best get my best bow ready!"

Fionna groans as the next words leave Cakes mouth, "That means you have to wear a dress too, baby girl."

"No way, not after last time!"

"Sweetheart, last time the Ice Queen was pretending to be Prince Gumball, I doubt that she will be even invited,"

"She could be! You know, it could totally happen, I'm not risking it."

Cake sighs, her voice lowering, "You will be in a dress, Fionna, whether you like it or not."

Fionna shakes her head, making a run for it but a stretched paw wraps around her waist and halls her to the bedroom, "Aw no fair!"

"My baby is going to look so pretty!"

There hours later Fionna slumps out of the bedroom, face planting the floor as Cake stretches over her, her tail plumped and her bow resting neatly on her head. The dress itches, it's too tight, her sword has no way of even fitting into the gown and there's no way in hell she's going without her sword this time, her _own _sword. Why can't she just go in her skirt and top, the outfit kicks butt and is infinitely more accessible than this doped up junk. She rolls, her long hair wrapping around her and she grumbles at the tresses. Why did Gumball have to have the stinking party anyway? It's not like he hasn't had countless others in the past year, you'd of thought the pink prince would be all partied. Fionna could just imagine him now, pestering Peppermint Maid as he runs about the hall, hanging up party streamers and baking cakes. The image of the frantic prince brings a chuckle forth, and Fionna is pulled up by Cakes arms and set begrudgingly on her feet.

"Look!" Cakes arm stretches a loop around Fionna and points to a hidden pocket in her dress, "What are sisters for?" she places Fionnas demon red sword in the pocket, and surprisingly it makes the night seem so much less glummer.

"Radical, now can we just go and get this over with? I'm starting to chafe dude."

Cake harrumphs and returns to her normal stature, folding her kitty arms, "I want some excitement, baby cakes, otherwise I'll take the sword."

Fionna pumps her fist in the air with a yell.

"Yeah! Force that enthusiasm!"

The two stretch out of the window and Cake shifts so Fionna is on her back, and despite herself Fionna is laughing the entire way to the candy kingdom, her hair flowing behind her, escaping her bunny hat even more so as Cake lopes through the fields. Fingers gripping tight, Fionna chuckles as Cake twirls and Fionna stands, pulling out her sword as they come upon a group of flying pixies. They giggle at the two, sprinkling their magic on them as their faces morph into something demonic, switching from cute to evil in seconds. Fionna slices the air, cutting them down with ease as they mutter at the pair, pulling their severed arms and legs away.

"Yeah, take that! Stinking pixies, always stinking up the place."

Fionna nods, "They do stink."

"Like the Ice Queen."

The two guffaw as they come up to the candy kingdom gates, the towering castle boasting lights that twinkle in the night sky, fireworks leaping from the roof with wild abandon as the cheers of the candy people mingle with the bangs. The banana guards step aside as the two enter, Fionna's shoes clicking loudly against the drawbridge.

"Hey Fionna." they nod.

"Sup guys."

The shoes really aren't working for Fionna, the things are so loud, it's almost like an alarm bell fitted around her neck, no good for sneaking. The Castle seems to vibrate with the energy within its walls and as the pair enter the castle, they gasp. The place looks awesome, the pinks complimented by the yellows, the smell of candy heady in the air and the musical laughter of PG echoes politely around the place. Lumpy Space Prince gyrates in the centre of the dance floor along with others, and some gather around it to watch the spectacle with joy, joining in. The cheesiness almost reminds her of Marshall Lee, and she wonders where the rad vampire is right now.

PG spots her almost immediately and Fionna blushes as he hurries towards her.

Engulfing her in a hug, Fionnas face burns as he laughs.

"Fionna, Cake! I'm so glad you could make it." standing there in his princely ensemble, he looks every bit the royal and Fionna for once, is glad that Cake forced her to wear the dress. The white strapless outfit hugs in at her waist before flowing silkily down to the floor, brushing the pink tiles lightly with a slit up the side allowing movement.

"Uh, it's cool PG, you know, haha."

Cake rolls her eyes, "Prince Gumball, do you know where Lord M-"

The confusing language of Lord M greets Fionnas ears and Cake squeals in delight.

"See you later baby, if you need me I'll be with Lord M." The two twirl around the guests and into the crowd, Cakes laughter echoing behind them as they leave Prince Gumball and Fionna behind.

"Prince Gumball, like, this punch is disgusting, ugh, what the lump?!"

PG smiles apologetically at Fionna before hurrying off to LSP, his calming words instantly soothing the inflamed prince.

Bounding through the crowd, waving back at the greeting the people give the heroine, she flips her way to the buffet, thankful for the skirt she has on underneath. The dress rubs painfully, and with a groan she shifts it around, picking at the stray pieces.

"Boo."

Fionna lunges, her fist connecting with the plump cheek of Marshall Lee.

"Argh, what the junk?"

"Sorry." Fionna smiles, "Reflexes."

"Yeah, whatever, listen, could you do me a favour and distract Sir Fluffingtons over there?"

Fionna glances over to see PG patting LSP on the... Shoulder? Fionna shakes her head, turning back to Marshall, "Why?"

He shrugs, his toothy grin flashing a dangerous pair of fangs, "So I can spike the-"

"Punch?"

He nods, kicking off the ground and pulling out a bottle, "Potion makes everyone burp uncontrollably for a solid five minutes."

"Say no more," Fionna makes her way over to the prince, once again admiring his stance. The guy really knows how to soothe people, he's always caring for others and junk, well, for his candy people anyway. The missions he sends her on have always been for the greater good, like blocking off caves that the candy people could fall into, or fighting off an ogre heading straight for the candy kingdom. His handsome face comes up and Fionna smiles.

"Yo, PG, do you have a second?" she twirls and pulls the prince with her, his back facing the punch bowl and over his shoulder she can just make out the floating legs of Marshall Lee.

"Uh, Fionna," he stumbles and Fionna rights him.

"It's just about the latest adventure you gave me."

He nods, smiling, "Did all go well?"

"Yeah, totally, in fact, it went better than well."

PG raises an eyebrow, his face drawing together, "Whatever do you mean by that?"

"That uh..." Marshall Lee gives her the thumbs up, his fanged grin indicating he is more than pleased with himself, "It just uh, went amazing, is all."

"Fionna." PG says, "I only asked you too-"

Fionna nods, "Yep, well, gotta go, you know, Cake needs me."

Fionna has never been good with making up things, and to be honest she's surprised Marshall even bothered asking her to distract the bubblegum prince, her stories always muddle up if she doesn't pay attention. Like now, for example. The prince watches in confusion as the adventuress bounds off into the crowd, her dress flowing behind her like a whirlwind, much like the heroine, whirlwind Fionna. The prince chuckles to himself before a scream from LSP draws him back to the present situation.

Whirlwind Fionna indeed.

_Meanwhile..._

The roar of flames pierces the cavern, the spittle and crack dangling above their heads precariously drawing to an almighty inferno, the glass containing the fiery doom groaning as the flames threaten to melt away the magical bonds. The yells of anger well deep inside the lamp, purely constructed for this purpose, to imprison the one who cannot control himself.

Such anger ignites the flames around him as the Queen watches on in boredom, the fiery throne room becoming increasingly hot as the flames branch out of the lamp, the only thing she can see is the twisting, writhing mass of flames within the glass prison.

A deep sense of pride fills her fiery frame, but she huffs in annoyance. The flames, albeit the strongest in the land of Aaa, are for nought, and helpless, she can only stare on as her son exhausts himself into a stupor, before his anger burns up again and like a reoccurring nightmare he blankets his prison in flames, a desperate but in the end feeble attempt to escape. The Prince of the Candy Kingdom ensured the magical bonds would not succumb to the destruction of flames, the glass never melting, never shifting, always groaning. Teasing the Flame Prince.

The groan and breathless gasp signals the end of his tantrum, and the flames dissipate as if there was nothing there in the first place, flitting away and the frame of the Flame Prince slumps down the side of the glass, his body completely exhausted.

Flame Queen sighs, her jester dancing himself away in an attempt to alleviate the Queens torment. The boy turned sixteen a few days ago. Eleven years he's been trapped in that glass, eleven years and he still tries to escape. The Prince of the Candy Kingdom presented the idea, no, the demand with the utmost logic, and the Queen, not willing to start a war bowed down to his demands out of respect. The Flame Prince from an early age demonstrated his potential, so much more than that of his fathers, of his mothers. The inherent evil nature obliterated any of her intentions; even the Queen of Fire knew the limits.

The squeal of laughter that comes from her jester is the final straw, and standing up, she sends a bolt of fire towards the dancing fool, "Enough, you bore me."

The jester runs, laughing giddily.

"Oh son," She sighs, the flames crackling as he closes his eyes, his fiery Mohawk flickering as his flames, his entire being, begin to die down.

Something needs to change, and that change needs to come now.


	2. Chapter 2

2: Discovery of Fire

Fionna glares at the mountain of goo opposing her, the sun's rays coalescing right in front of him, blinding her as she raises her sword. The people of Goblin City rush away to their homes, screaming and yelling as they flee. The goo turns, its giant eye blinking down at her as a mouth appears on what Fionna can only presume to be its face. A booming laugh followed by a fountain of green spittle that splatters onto Fionna.

"Ah dude," she lifts her arm, the goo slumping to the ground with a squelch, "Gross!"

Cake wraps around the goo but her body seems to seep into it, her long frame being consumed by the transparent green muck.

"Nobody messes with Cake!" Fionna lunges, her sword slashing the side of the beast and it cackles, swiping a hand across the ground, Fionna narrowly dodging the blow with a roll before stabbing the beast. It howls this time, no longer laughing and Fionna slams her fist into the place her sword used to be, wrapping her arm around her friend. The goo is thick and it feels like she's moving through water, but with a strong tug the cat dislodges. Fionna kicks against the beast and they fly away from it clumsily, tumbling to the ground with a grunt as Cakes body coils back into her normal size.

The cat mewls at herself, "Aw heck, this stuff is going to take forever to get off."

Fionna kicks off of one of the buildings, using her momentum to latch onto the side of the gooey monster, its natural sloping physique allowing an easy climbing surface, that is, if her feet didn't keep sinking into it.

"Oh glob," Fionna pulls her foot out, the goo soaking into her socks, "Cake! I need some help!"

"On it!" the cat stretches up and Fionna pushes away from the goo, back flipping onto the cats back and they stretch up to the monsters height. Fionna, locking her legs, pulls back her fist and punches the beast in the eye.

It howls, shrinking and shrinking as they follow suit, slithering off down a drain pipe before they can stop it.

"Aw man." Fionna grunts, "That's the second goo monster, and that's the second time they've gotten away! We're losing our skill."

Cake plucks at her fur, "Speak for yourself, I'm at the top of my game."

Fionna rolls her eyes, picking up the cat, "Sure you are, you're getting old, bro, like, dust old."

Cake hisses, "I'm not old! You're old, little miss teenager."

"A teenager is not old," a goblin rushes up to thank them and Fionna smiles in response.

"So you say, Marshall Lee is a teenager, but he's still old."

Fionna sputters, setting the cat down as they exit the kingdom and enter the adjacent forest, "That's so not the same."

"Is too."

"Whatever, you're just getting all cranky because you're all loved up."

Cake casts her a sideways glance, "And how does that work?"

"Old people are always cranky, and they're usually married or something."

"What about Tree Trunks? He's not cranky and he's rocking the babes."

Fionna shudders, "Do not say that about Tree Trunks ever again."

"Whatever you say sweetheart, all I know is that you're the one crushing on a particularly gummy prince if I do say so myself."

Fionna whirls on the cat, her face burning, "No I do not!"

"Oh come on Fionna, I thought we already established this."

Fionna tilts her head, her blonde bang falling into her eyes, "I suppose we have, but still, I'm not crushing on him, I like him sure."

"Like, like?"

"No!"

Cake cackles, "Well, whatever you say, but we still have to go and let him know the gooey guy has gone."

The two head straight for the Candy Kingdom and after twenty long minutes of Cake telling Fionna to make a move on PG, they enter his castle. The pink prince is bent over his science work top, a bunch of baking trays cluttering one side whilst the other side boasts chemicals of different assortments.

"Oh, hello, what a surprise!" he turns and hands Fionna a blue looking liquid, "Fionna, now that you're here, please could you taste this."

Shrugging, Fionna chugs the bottle and her stomach immediately rumbles, her arms tingling and suddenly everything goes white, a flash of colour before everything settles into place again, suddenly smelling a whole lot better.

"What?"

The prince claps, his pink face lighting up and Fionna blushes, "Excellent! It worked!"

"What was that?"

"My new formula, it makes you sweat cleaning agents that instantly gives you a bath."

"Oh," Fionna tugs on her blonde strand, noticing the green stains from the goo monster have disappeared, "Cool."

"Indeed." the Prince quickly takes the bottle and moves back to the table of concoctions.

Cake nudges Fionna and with wide eyes she motions to the prince, "Nows your chance."

"My chance for what?"

Cake sighs, "To get your man!"

"Oh," Fionna nods, "Yeah, totally."

Fionna had no idea how she had been roped into approaching the Prince with her kind of intentions, but somehow she found herself a mere few inches away from the Prince as he meticulously worked with his chemicals, baking formulas into candy. His handsome profile has Fionna tugging on her hair again, the bunny hat flopping into her field of view as she taps the Princes shoulder. Standing straight, he is a full head and a half taller than her, and Fionna finds it hard not be intimidated by his mere presence. He's always so happy, so kind. Everything always goes to plan for him, he never has to worry about whether or not girls like him, because they all do, looking at him now, Fionna can see why. He's just too perfect.

Too perfect.

Swallowing her fear, she clears her throat, "Gumball, there's something I have to say," he pauses, his lips still pulled up into a polite but impatient smile, "I don't really know how to say this."

The Prince, for a few seconds, seems confused, but slowly Fionna can see some kind of understanding begin to flicker in his pink eyes, and behind that, the look of troubled thoughts. Fionna's stomach rolls.

"I really like-"

Gumball holds up his hand, a sigh escaping his perfect lips, "Fionna," he pinches the bridge of his nose, and motions for her to follow him. He leads her to a seating area and he slumps down into one of the seats, for a few brief moments forgetting his princely demeanour. Fionna follows suit, feeling sicker as the seconds pass by. The silent, heart splitting seconds.

"I knew this was coming, I've known for quite a while." he leans back, "Fionna, you and I, we can't be together, it's just not right, it's-"

Fionna laughs, standing up, her sides burning and her face heating up, "Oh Gumball, it was all... I mean... I was just joking around. All I was gonna say was that I really like your... New formula, it's mathematical"

Something like pity crosses the Princes face, and it tears at Fionna's heart strings as she backs away, kicking over one of his plants in the process, "Oh glob, I'm so sorry, I'll buy you a new one."

"Fionna."

"Anyway, Cake and I really have some things to do, monsters to slay, princes to save."

"Fionna..."

"So I'll see you around, okay Gumball."

His sigh is what cracks her facade as Cake stretches them down to the floor, the tears she hadn't meant to cry coming to life on her cheeks as they stride out of the kingdom, for once Cake not speaking a word. The ride home is quiet, no monsters attack, no screams can be heard and for once Fionna hates it. She just wishes that there was something she could fight, something she could hack away at. Cake stretches to a halt and Fionna clambers off without a word, running straight through the kitchen, ignoring the attack of BMO and climbing her way up to the bedroom. Cake sighs, stretching her way up the bedroom and peeking through the hole in the floor. Fionna clutches the piece of hair, the pink strand a tell-tale giveaway as tears stream down her face. Wiping at them angrily, she sniffles and Cake feels for the girl.

Coming to a stop beside her, Cake wraps a loving hand on her shoulder but the girl shrugs her away, "Not now Cake."

"Fionna, baby."

The sniffled grunt has Cake backing away.

"What's the point," Fionna says, lying back with the piece of hair grasped on her chest, "If I can't keep him."

Cake strokes her hair, taking the hat, "Oh Fionna, Gumball doesn't know what he's missing."

Fionna sobs, her chest aching with an ache that's worse than that time she was stabbed, and no amount of magical tears will heal this wound.

Cake pulls away and watches on as Fionna struggles to contain her sobs, her own heart breaking at the sight of her sister, feeling helpless.

And then something comes to mind, an idea, so unbelievably obvious that Cake wants to kick herself for not thinking of it before. Why haven't they tried this?! All of this heartache could've been avoided!

Heading for her boots, Cake pulls BMO over to Fionna, "Keep an eye on her BMO," to Fionna she says, "Just going out for a walk, baby cakes."

The girl groans in response and BMO smiles, the robots face digitally lighting up as two tiny fists press together, "If anyone tries to hurt Fionna, I will kill them."

"Good baby." Cake coos before disappearing down the hole.

The sun is setting outside casting a pink hue across the kingdom of Aaa, and Cake stretches her legs until she can see as far as her kitty eyes allow, debating on which way to turn.

The scream side tracks every thought and Cake turns towards it, stretching her legs and taking off towards the increasingly frantic sound. In the centre of a clearing in the trees, a wash bucket rattles on the ground as mechanical owls peck menacingly at it.

"Hold on baby! Cakes here!" extending her paw she enlarges it and smacks the owls away, smashing one into the ground whilst the other swings away. Before she can grab it the owl flies away and Cake smiles at a job well done.

Look whose old now.

She quickly makes her way up to the wash tub, coiling around it as she lifts it.

"Flamba?!"

"Yo. Bets you thought I was a dude on accounts of my mannish screams."

Cake huffs, "Well, yah."

"Anyway, thanks for saving us."

The heavy Boston accent has something clicking in Cakes mind and she quickly stops Flamba, coming to a stand in front of her, "Hey Flamba?"

The little fiery kitten raises a flamed eyebrow.

"You're pretty down with the goings on in Aaa, any princes around Fionna's age?"

Flamba considers this with a paw raised, her flames coiling cutely on top of her tiny head, "Nope, not that I can think of..."

"Oh come on, Flamba, please."

Flamba pauses, pursing her lips, "Well, there is this one prince..."

"Yes!" Cake punches the air, "Who is he?"

Flamba shakes her head, "Nope, Never mind, I never said anything."

Cake wants to shake the little kitten, but there's no way she's burning her fur, not after the goo fiasco, "Flamba I just saved your life."

Flamba stops, turning, "Okay, I know one prince."

Flamba leads the way across the lands of Aaa, leaving little burnt footsteps in the lush green grass as they finally come upon the fire kingdom, an intimidating kingdom, the heat emanating out of the place has Cake taking a few steps back.

"Flamba sweety, I think I'll die if I go in there."

Flamba slaps her forehead, "Oh yeah, I forgot, I'll cast a flame shield on yas."

Curious words begin to appear around her small frame, written in flames as she chants and abruptly a cool wash brushes over Cake, encompassing her and the flames suddenly don't seem so hot, in fact, it's like a normal summer's day, except for the massive spouts of lava and the lake of fire. Flamba ushers her through to the castle, the structure dark and foreboding and Cake can already feel her tail bristling.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

_Meanwhile_

Flame Prince shudders, his body aching and the flames that we're once so eager to escape becoming lead in his veins. Slumping to the ground, he crosses his legs in defeat. The lamp is unbeatable, and it sucks to be stuck inside it. He'd just fly out if it wasn't for the magic containing him. Every time he came to the top of the lamp, the air seemed to congeal, becoming thick and heavy, swallowing his flames leaving his hand burning in pain. His mother once explained it was because the magic cuts off the oxygen supply if he gets too close.

The prison was designed especially for him.

Flame Prince didn't know what hurt the most, the fact that his own mother would lock him away, or the fact that she wouldn't set him free after watching him for so many years. Sure, she brought him books, studied with him to keep him entertained, she even showed him some tricks to do with his flames. But she always walked away when he wouldn't respond.

Running a hand through his hair, the fiery mohawk flickering through his fingers, the Flame Prince sighs, feeling the anger and dejection begin to build again. His flames crackle, spit into ignition and fuel his anger.

"Good morrow, Madame Flame Queen."

He hasn't heard that voice before. Despite their... hospitable Service the flame kingdom doesn't have many visitors, not many people can withstand the heat. So the new voice has Flame Prince crawling to the edge of his lamp. Pressing his fingers against the curved edge, he peers down.

A Cat, well, at least he thinks it's a cat, a pretty weird looking cat, but nonetheless a cat stands before the Queen, moving jerkily with a blue hue surrounding her frame. He can't hear much in the lamp, everything sounds murky, a poor imitation of real sound and he presses his ear against the glass in a vain attempt to hear more. Words float in and out, and he can just make out the words _court _and _princess_.

The Queen looks up at him, her fiery eyes narrowing as she regards her son.

Something in his stomach flips and he digs his nails into the glass, his entire body becoming hot with hope. There's a princess that wants to... Court him?

The Cat breaks out a guitar and the Flame Prince raises an eyebrow as she begins jumping around, a tune barely breaching his container. The Queen doesn't look amused, her eyes becoming darker as the cat stands in front of her.

Flame Prince blinks, and misses something detrimental as a second figure appears seemingly out of nowhere. The glass is misty and it hazes his vision, but he thinks he can just make out the shape of a girl, the same strange blue aura surrounding her. She looks, pretty, sort of. Flame Prince shakes his head, blinking to try and focus. The strange image doesn't shift and Flame Prince doesn't know whether to believe his eyes. His mind must be playing tricks on him, a princess would never be here to court him, it just isn't done. Sitting back, he sighs, bringing his knees up and resting his elbows on them, cradling his head.

There's no point in letting himself hope, it must be a cruel joke, his mother really has taken a new leap here. Pursing his lips, he pushes away all feelings, all thoughts, instead focusing on the girl and her cat as they attempt to prove to his mother something no other could. The jester bursts into flames and not the good kind, and Flame Prince winces as the jester whimpers.

His thoughts are confirmed and the crushing sense of failure hits him hard as his mother sends them away, the hope, obliterated. He watches, eyes full of loathing as the pair of blue creatures begin to fight, the girl quickly taking out the cat with ease. Weird.

The lamp shudders and Flame Prince jumps to his feet, his prison for eleven years juddering and unbelievably, it begins to lower. The hope he thought had evaporated hits him like a battering ram and he presses his hands against the glass, breathless as the ground approaches. The crowd stare on in awe, their quiet appreciation echoing his own as he stares disbelievingly at the ground. The lamp clunks to a stop, finally hitting the ground, and the door, invisible until now, swings open.

Flame Prince wastes no time, transforming into a swirl of flame as he lunges out of the thing, coalescing feet away.

The ground has never felt so good, the soft packed flooring greeting his feet like an old lost friend, a reunited front as he stares at his feet, mouth agape. There's no words for a time like this, only the wondrous feelings that course through him at a rapid pace, consuming him, urging him on and he runs to the two creatures, sinking to his knees in front of them. Never has he seen a more beautiful sight, two ogres could've been standing in front of him and he would've thought they were the most enchanting creatures in the land of Aaa. Grasping her hand, the girl's, he places a soft kiss on her knuckles, bowing his head in respect.

"Princess."

So he is kind of surprised when the hand is yanked away, looking up in confusion.

"He seems normal."

"Yeah he seems normal," the crowd whispers amongst themselves, blocking out the sound of her voice, and for a few seconds he's enraged, for years he's had to listen to their gossiping, their whispering as they speak amongst each other, backstabbing.

Fire consumes his every waking thought and he stands, flames engulfing his entire frame and bolts of fire hit one of the bystanders, reducing him to a pile of little Flamba's.

"Stop whispering!" he hisses.

"Hey...So that's where I came from." Flamba notes and the crowd shrink back in fear.

His anger receding, he looks over to the princess to see her shrinking back in fear.

"Princess..."

She huddles back, away from him and he knits his eyebrows in confusion, "You know, on second thought, we're not really each other's types," the princess stammers.

"What?"

"I changed my mind, I don't I like you, so uh... Bye."

The girl runs taking her cat with her, and Flame Prince can only stare on in dumbfounded confusion, before her words clear the fog in his brain.

She doesn't want him.

She's leaving.

And if she leaves, that means one thing.

The glass prison looms in his field of vision, and he can just hear the clanking of metal as the guards prepare to seize him, force him back into it.

His entire life he's dreamt of this opportunity, freedom is just a few paces away, the fresh air of outside beckoning him with a loving hand. Just one opportunity to escape.

It's now or never.

Without a second glance he transforms into pure flames, arcing out of the entrance to the fire kingdom and unbelievably he can make out the cat, ten times the size of her old self now, bounding away from the flame kingdom.

Anger, pride and hurt courses through him, and he instantly changes direction, arching across the sky with the power of his flames propelling him, leaving a burning trail behind him.

Hands inches away from his hips, he doubles the effort, both to escape the oncoming guards that are sure to be streaking across the sky in a few moments and to catch up with the girl and her cat. Sure they helped him escape, but unintentionally so and wounded pride is hard to ignore, rejection too. Before he finally, fully escapes, he's going to teach them a lesson.

Never mess with an elemental.


	3. Chapter 3

3: Making friends

Fionna lunges to a stand as Cake tumbles into the kitchen, patches of her fur burnt as she pants, steam and smoke rising steadily from her prone frame.

"Cake?!"

"Fionna! We need to move."

"Wait what? Like, move, move, or just change position?"

A roar of something whooshes past the open window, and Fionna looks up to see a mountain of flames beginning to engulf the world outside. The heat sears her face and she stumbles back, groping the floor for her sword as the heat consumes her, sweat beading on her forehead.

"Cake, what the junk?"

Cake merely whimpers, curling into a ball and Fionna sighs, grasping Gumballs hair to save it from the flames that begin to crawl across the wooden floor, she runs to the window, leaning out.

A monster, the biggest thing she has ever seen looms over their tree house, a bright beacon of red and orange in the night sky. It roars, the crackle of the flames creating a sonic boom that shudders the entire house and Fionna hoists herself out of the window.

The clouds that hang heavily around the house for once are a welcome sight, the boom of thunder echoing that of the flames as the fire begins to latch onto the tree house. Fionna waves her sword at the beast, "Stop! I swear to Glob I am not in the mood!"

Talk about bad timing.

At least it's going to rain, putting an easy stop to the flames. Fat raindrops begin to fall, immediately soaking Fionna's face and this time a roar of pain, not of flames, blankets the house, the flames shrinking and shrinking, the monster becoming nothing before her very eyes. The flames disperse leaving the frame of a boy, and Fionna gasps, "It's a boy."

The boy, no, not a boy, the guy must be the same age as her, wavers on the roof before tumbling over the side. Automatically she reaches her hand out, grasping his hand and his weight pulls her down over the edge, hanging on by only her fingertips on both ends. His hand is slipping, the dead weight of his body, much bigger than she anticipated is too much and with a yell they both fall. Fionna clutches the boy to her, wrapping around him as they fall for what seems forever, the rain hardening the fall.

Impact.

The breath is knocked out of her, everything seems to fade out for a few seconds, sounds disappear like her heads been dunked under water before everything returns with aching clarity. Pain, that's the first thing she registers, that and the boy just a few feet away from her, his face knit in agony, a silent snarl gracing his perfect lips. Fionna reaches out to him, crawling pathetically. He seems okay, well, as okay as Fionna can guess. Her back hurts but her mind overpowers the pain, and she stands with a pained groan.

The guy looks helpless, his leg kicked out and his arms lying uselessly by his side. Despite the fact that he was just burning her house down, Fionna wraps a hand underneath his shoulders, the smoke rising steadily off of him making her cough. His skin has turned a dark grey, almost purple colour, and that doesn't sit well with her. Grunting, she pulls him back to the tree house. He's heavy, and Fionna almost drops him. If she wasn't injured they'd be inside by now. Doubling her efforts, her feet slip in the mud but after a few seconds they're inside the dry, warm tree house. She drops him despite herself, grimacing as he flops onto the floor, dripping wet, lifeless. Cake shivers in the corner, shaking her fur and it poofs out.

"Cake." Fionna growls, heading towards the cat, "What did you do?! Who is this guy?!"

"Nothing, it's the prince of the Fire Kingdom!"

Fionna shakes her head, her wet hair slapping her cheeks and she groans.

They head to the bedroom and Fionna quickly washes, eager to see if the guy is okay as Cake quietly sits by, her big eyes looking straight at the Flame Prince, searching for any kind of movement in case she needs to go grab a bucket full of ice cold water. Pulling on another set of adventuring clothes, Fionna heads back into the living room with wary steps to see the space where the Prince used to be empty, the ground barren of teenage boy. Cake blinks up at her with a shrug, and Fionna runs a hand down her face as her heart begins to hammer at her rib cage. Okay, so this dude is now awake, evidently. And he's just tried to burn down her house. The odds don't look good as she begins to search the room.

A hand clutches her shirt, pulling her to a shuddering halt and she loses her feet, the angry glare of the guy facing her, his teeth bared in a grinding snarl, hair dripping down his too perfect to be real face. He's still soaking, and he looks incredibly pissed off about that.

"You!"

"Me?" Fionna squeaks, his hand on her shirt the only thing holding her up.

"What's wrong with me, huh? You don't like me?"

"I like you." it's an automatic response, and Fionna realises it's true.

The Princes face softens, his eyes going wide and his cheeks picking up some colour instead of the dark purple. His hand begins to burn where he has grabbed her.

And then just like that he snaps out of it, shaking his head, his colour returns almost instantly, his flames licking to life and his hair igniting into a mohawk of fire. Heat blares out of him and he brings Fionna;s face up to his, angrier than before.

"What's wrong with you?"

Fionna flinches, opening her mouth but he interrupts her.

"I've never met such an unbearable girl in my life!" he throws her away, letting go of her shirt and turning with stoic movements, marching towards the door leaving fiery footprints behind. Fionna watches on as he opens the door with jerky movements, slamming it into the wall and marching straight out into the rain.

His cry of pain has her on her feet in an instant and she clumsily runs to him as the rain sizzles on his skin, smoke rising around him as he sinks to his knees.

Fionna grabs him and drags him back inside, thankfully he doesn't struggle. Coughing and groaning, he curls up on the floor, cradling his body as if to protect it from the storm. Fionna fumbles for something to do, mouth open as she stares on in horror. He's in pain; a heroine's job is to stop people from hurting, isn't it?

He shivers and Fionna stumbles to a stand.

"You said he was the prince of the Fire Kingdom right?"

Cake nods, "But girl he's evil!"

Fionna stares down at him, his frame seemingly taking up the entire floor. He must be as tall as PG and Marshall, but he looks younger, her age maybe, and the way he's cradling and squeezing his eyes shut, he looks even more youthful, innocent, "Nah, he's not evil."

Turning, she runs for the fireplace still crackling in the corner and grabs a poker, prodding a piece coal with pursed lips until the poker spears through the chunk. She quickly runs back to Flame Prince and crouches down beside him, resting a hand on his muscled arm, noticing the few small scars dotting his biceps.

With a wince, she presses the coal to his arm and like a deer to water the flames absorb almost instantly, igniting his arm with gusto and his colour returns.

He opens his eyes, two ruby red orbs matching the jewel embedded into the centre of his hairline, and they turn on Fionna with anger. He pushes up, scrambling away leaving a scorching burn mark as he goes until he hits the door, his back connecting with the wood with a thunk.

"What's happening?" he looks around frantically, eyes landing on the window and slowly realisation dawns on his impossibly handsome face, "It's raining."

Fionna can only watch, nodding her head yes.

He glares at the window, annoyance taking place over confusion, "Great, just great." his head swivels and he presses his lips into a thin line.

Fionna shakes her head after a few seconds, realising that it's rude to stare and she blushes as she stands, "Listen uh, you don't look so good," the flames have returned but he still carries a sickly gleam, the heat not so intense anymore, "I know you don't want to, but you can stay if you want? I mean, it beats going out in the rain."

He doesn't answer, instead staring up at her with an unreadable expression.

"Well?"

"I don't understand you." he shakes his head and stands too, and Fionna pretends not to notice the flames he leaves behind on the door. They quickly disappear, and Fionna assumes it's due to his weakened state. He sways a little, but resolution keeps him upright.

"What?"

"First," he sounds breathless, "You try to court me, and then you tell me you don't like me, and then you tell me you do like me?" he shakes his head and Fionna blushes.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but…" She pauses, feeling awkward as she shuffles from foot to foot, "I never said I didn't like you." She looks up, expecting to see some kind of softening to his face, but he's too busy staring at the window, his brow knit in concentration. With a sigh, Fionna waits.

_Flame Prince_

The rain is slowing, he can feel it, and it distracts him for a few moments, forgetting his question to Fionna, the sluggish feeling quelling as the seconds tick by and the intensity of his flames increase. Soon he can leave, leave this place behind and start anew.

Fionna shakes her head, "Listen, if you're going to stay here, you have to be nice."

Flame Prince scowls, "You're one to talk, you and your cat made me feel..."

How did they make him feel? Horrible? Hurt? Fionna waits, her eyes widening and Flame Prince shakes his head, waving the thought away with a flicker of his flamed hand.

"I'm sorry we made you feel that way, but I honestly don't understand why you would feel like that! I haven't even met you before!"

He shakes his head, amazed, this princess has forgotten what she did only an hour ago, "Are you suffering from amnesia?"

She blushes, and before he can stop it, the thought flutters through his mind. She's pretty, really pretty. Big blue eyes the colour of crystal lakes his mother once showed him, blonde hair that curls out of her bunny hat and a fierceness to her face that shows she's ready for anything the world has to throw at her.

"-Cause I have no idea what you're going on about."

Flame Prince blinks, realising he's just missed her entire rant, "What?"

Outrage crosses her face for a brief second, but an orange and white ball comes hurtling towards his face and tiny stings dot his cheeks as the ball knocks him flat. Yelling, he bats at the ball of fur.

"Cake!" the fur ball is pulled away from him and he glares up at the girl holding the squirming cat that's glaring daggers at him.

"Fionna let me go! He's evil!" the cat hisses at him and he raises his lip back.

"Cake, shushers."

"Don't you shush me!" Cake snarls, swiping at the prince.

Rolling her eyes, the princess wraps both her hands around the cat, disabling the squirming creature within a few seconds until Cake is panting breathlessly in her arms. Fionna smiles apologetically at him for some reason before she frowns, gasps, "Oh glob, I'll go get some medical supplies!" dropping the cat a safe distance away, she runs into the adjacent room leaving the prince with the deranged cat. He glares at the cat, legs bent with his butt still parked on the floor, his face still stinging as he wipes his cheek with his arm.

The cat hisses, watching him warily and he raises his lip back, just as the girl comes running back in, ungracefully launching herself to his side, kneeling down and pulling out a white cloth.

She presses it to his face, and the cloth instantly bursts into flames.

"Oh."

She drops it, and Flame Prince picks up the burning material, watching it closely as it finally disintegrates.

"How do I... How do I help you? You're bleeding."

Flame Prince glances up in shock, pressing a fingertip to his stinging cheek. Yup, there's blood on his fingers. He glares at the cat as he intensifies his flames for a few seconds, the added heat threading through his body and healing any abrasions. The trick he learnt from his mother, minor injuries such as bruises or scratches can easily be healed at a progressed rate if he initiates his flames. The girl gasps, drawing him back to the present and he realises just how close they are. Fionna is leaning over him, her mouth an 'O' shape as she watches and Flame Prince leans back a bit, resting on his elbows, one knee bent.

"Woah, awesome trick."

"Thanks," he mutters, looking away from her. The rain is still hammering away at the tree house, and his limbs begin to ache and throb, echoing the dull sound of the water droplets hitting the wooden structure. It always happens if he's caught in a downpour, from what he can remember as a young child. Days out with his mother ending abruptly as fat raindrops feel from the sky, the only protection offered was in the fire kingdom, where it never rains, the water droplets evaporating before they can reach the ground. Being caught directly in the rain, however, he cannot remember, and he coughs as his body begins to protest, covering his mouth as he hunches over.

"You okay?"

Nodding, he tries to stand, swaying as his knees give. Glob, talk about a delayed reaction. His core temperature begins to decrease and soon he feels... Cold. The princess hovers uselessly around him and he just wants to leave, go back home.

"I have more coal, if that will help?"

Bracing himself against their door, he shakes his head, "Coals like an energy drink, not good for the sick."

"Is that what's happening?" she asks, and he can hear her move towards him, and he jerks when he feels her palm press against his back before hearing her hiss, pulling back, "Are you sick? Is it because of the rain?"

He fumbles for the handle of the door, wanting out. He needs to leave; he doesn't care about the rain.

"Flame Prince," she says, and he doubles his efforts, vision blurring, "Just... Dude just stop, I'm trying to help."

He scoffs, turning on her and pressing his back against the door, "Sure you are."

She scowls, "I am, now if you just tell me what's wrong I can help!"

Rolling his eyes, he straightens, using his strength to keep himself upright. Everything goes colder, and she stumbles back, eyes wide.

"FP, you're going blue-"

Cobwebs of darkness begin to thread through his vision, and the floor suddenly seems like his best friend, in fact, he's going to reunite with it right now. Her voice fades as her shoes come into view, before he closes his eyes with a defeated sigh.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi guys! Appreciating the feedback, so I thought I'd put an extra big chapter up for you! :) Hope you like it, and I love any feedback you can give me, it helps me write more coherently as well as rethink my ideas! HOPE YOU ENJOY! DONT FORGET TO REVIEW AND JUNK :D**

4:

"What do I do Cake?"

Fionna stares down at the six foot guy currently taking up her entire couch, his legs hanging off one end. His Mohawk which flickered brightly, hotly, only moments ago no longer burns, and his skin is no longer a bright flame, but a dull grey, lifeless.

She can even touch him. Holding a hand against his forehead, she grimaces, "He's really cold, like, colder than me," she turns to her kitty sister who's watching warily.

"Chuck him outside."

"Cake!" Fionna hisses, glaring at her sister, "We can't do that!"

"Why not? The boy's evil, Fionna!"

Shaking her head, she turns back to him, drinking in his features, "Nah," she says, tracing the vulnerable planes. In his sleep, his face loses its inherent ferocity, becoming relaxed, his mouth parted slightly as he inhales deeply, softly, "He's just passionate."

"Baby he needs to go."

Shaking her head, she smooths his royal attire down on his chest, "Cake, we're heroes, heroes help those in need, right?"

Cake sighs, groaning as Fionna continues.

"So owe him a duty to-"

"Okay, okay!" Cake hisses, "But any signs of trouble and he's gone, I ain't having my baby hurt because of some hot headed boy."

"Awesome, now, how do I fix him?"

Cake moves beside Fionna, frowning at the boy, "I dunno, take him back."

"Cake it's raining! That's what hurt him in the first place."

"Put him in the fire."

They both turn to BMO standing on the small table behind them, the little computer smiling happily whilst pointing at the fire in the corner.

"Awesome."

Fionna grabs the Flame Prince under the arms, hefting him upright and his head flops down as she huffs, grunting, "Glob, he's heavy, Cake, give me a hand."

The cat stretches into a bed and Fionna, counting to three, heaves the Prince onto it. For a young, muscular prince, he's a lot heavier than he looks. Cake scuttles over to the fire, and for a moment Fionna debates whether or not to place him in it. It's small, so they'll only be able to get maybe his head and shoulders in, but it's something, right? Another part of her objects the action, her rational side dictating that fire is bad, we don't throw people into fire. But this guy _is _fire.

Nodding, she grabs him once again under the shoulders, helping Cake as she lowers him gently to the floor, his head resting against her chest and she blushes.

"Okay, so we'll put his shoulders in, cool?"

"And then rotate?"

Fionna nods, changing position so she won't be caught by the flames. They nudge him gently towards the fire, Fionna cringing as his head makes contact with the flames, but the grimace was for nought as the flames seem to lap lazily at the welcome intruder, neither burning him nor helping him.

"Cake," Fionna moans, "It's not working!"

"Give it a minute, baby cakes."

They sit by, crossing their legs as they watch the flames surround the prince's head. Nothing happens for what seems like forever, but Fionna jerks and clutches Cake as she sees his finger twitch, his colour returning slightly.

In an instant, his mohawk is relit, his eyes opening and his body returning to its normal hue as he sits up, banging his head on the fireplace and grunting, clutching his forehead.

Fionna chuckles despite herself, clutching her mouth in an effort not to laugh. He scowls, scooting forwards away from the fire and standing.

"What happened?"

Cake stretches up, literally stretching this time with a yawn, "Fionna, now that he's okay, I'm going to Lord Monochromicorns, there's only so much evil I can take."

Fionna pulls the cat to one side as FP begins to brush down his clothes, his eyes on the fire, thankfully, "Cake, what are you doing? You can't leave me here with him! You said yourself he's evil."

Cake raises an eyebrow, "Sweety, I said he was evil and you let him sleep here, no matter how many times I say it you're gonna disagree, so I'm gonna let you work this out of your system, you're sixteen now, a big girl." she pats Fionna on the head, and Fionna bats at her paws.

"No!" but her sister is already stretching out of the window, right into the rain, luckily the cat has the common sense to grab an umbrella first but Fionna can still hear the hiss of displeasure. She runs to the window, seeing her sister shake a fist to the air and she barks out laughter, Cake whirling with a scowl as Fionna points at her, "Serves you right."

Closing the window, Fionna leans her head against the cool glass, watching the raindrops as they wriggle down the glass.

Feeling like a bad host, she turns, seeing the Flame Prince sitting cross legged facing the fire, his eyes trained on it, "Would you like... I don't know something to eat or drink?"

He shakes his head, still staring into the fire and Fionna sighs, going to the kitchen and making herself a cup of hot chocolate. Returning, she sits beside him, crossing her own legs and placing the cup between them. She pulls a cover from the couch, wrapping it loosely round her shoulders and she stares up at the prince as he stares into the fire. Slowly, he reaches out and places his hand in the fire, flames leaping up his arm before dancing in the air. A small smile plays on his lips, and Fionna blushes when he notices her smiling too.

"Are you feeling better?"

He cocks his head, "A little, did I pass out?" his cheeks redden, and Fionna smiles.

"A little."

He chuckles before the sound dies out, and they both listen to the crackle of the fire inches away from them.

"Why did you say you didn't want me?"

The question startles Fionna, and she glances up at the Prince's face, his eyes trained on the fire with a frown as he sweeps his hand slowly through it.

"I didn't," she says, frowning herself.

He shakes his head, "I know what I saw, you and your cat came to our castle."

Fionna blinks, "I didn't know that."

This makes Flame Prince smile, "I didn't know you were such a good liar."

Outraged, Fionna snaps her fingers so he finally meets her eyes, "I'm not lying! I didn't go to the Fire Kingdom!" and then it all suddenly falls into place. Cakes hasty return followed by the princes angry retaliation, and the fact that he keeps asking her why she doesn't like him. Cake must've gone to the fire kingdom, pretending to be her after seeing her so upset over Gumball. Pressing her palm to her forehead, Fionna groans. Sometimes her sister's well wishes don't work out, like now, for example.

"No, it was my sister, Cake."

"The cat?"

She nods, "She must've gone to try and court you after seeing me so upset over Gum-"

He interrupts, "That doesn't explain why I saw _you_ there."

"Cake's a shape shifter; she must've changed into me."

Understanding, thankfully, dawns on his face, along with embarrassment as his entire face becomes even redder, "Oh glob, I'm sorry, I didn't realise."

"It's cool, seriously, it wouldn't be the first time my sisters gotten herself into trouble," chuckling, Fionna takes a sip of her hot chocolate, pulling a face when the cold liquid hits her tongue.

"Ugh, it's gone cold, what a waste."

The Flame Prince leans forwards, causing Fionna to pause, her heart stuttering as he places his hands on the cup, under her hands, strangely enough not burning her. The concentration on his face as he stares at the cup has her enraptured, his closeness causing her to blush. A couple of stupefied seconds later and he pulls away, sighing.

"You didn't burn me," she whispers, noting the now warm cup in her hands, she takes a sip and smiles when she finds it warm, the delicious chocolate going down a treat.

"When I concentrate," he begins, "I can control my powers a lot more, so I don't burn things, also, I'm sick still, so that helps." he smiles slightly, a one sided smile that lifts one corner of his lips, crooked, and Fionna nearly melts like her chocolate.

"Thanks," she whispers, coughing, "Uh yeah, thanks."

He nods, turning back to the fire, "So it was all just one big misunderstanding... It wasn't you who wanted to court me?"

Fionna blushes, "Uh, sort of."

He raises an eyebrow, "What do you mean, sort of?"

Fionna coughs, looking away. Something in her wants to be with this guy, and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, she might be developing a crush on the hot tempered prince, despite the others insistence that he's evil, he isn't, she knows it, and she also knows that he makes her heart jump, her insides feel all goo like and alive at the same time and her stomach rumble with butterflies, "Well, you know..."

A warm finger, a slight sting accompanying it tilts her chin up and she looks into the eyes of the handsome prince, "No, I don't."

"I do want to... I like you, okay."

He raises his eyebrows and his cheeks begin to redden as do hers, both staring into each other's eyes. Fionna isn't sure who began to lean in first, but she sure as hell knows that they're mouths are becoming a lot more closer, his eyes flickering between her eyes and her mouth as he leans in, and she leans forwards.

"Fionna! Leak!"

They jump apart like a guilty couple, Fionna scrambling up to BMO who points at a crack in the corner. She goes to the cupboard, studiously ignoring the prince as she fixes the leak with a plank of wood, hammering it into place. Thankfully the leak isn't too high for her to reach, and she stands back, holding the hammer, refusing to turn around in case she dies of embarrassment.

She jumps when a warm hand lands on her shoulder, and the hand disappears as she turns around, finding the Flame Prince towering over her, well, it seems that way as she braces herself on the cabinets behind her.

"The rain has stopped." he says, and Fionna glances out of the window.

"So it has," she murmurs.

"I should get going." he says, heading to the door.

"Wait, are you going back to the fire kingdom?"

He shakes his head, "Nah, they'll just lock me back up again."

Fionna blinks, "Why would they..."

He grins, "I'm evil, remember."

Shaking her head, she rolls her eyes, "So where are you going?"

He shrugs, "I'll have to find a place." he goes to leave again but Fionna lunges forwards, standing between him and the door.

"Wait! If you don't have anywhere to stay tonight, you can... I don't know, maybe uh, stay here if you want."

_Flame Prince_

What is with this girl? Flame Prince stares at her, his mind boggled as she smiles back, eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as she waits for his answer.

She really wants him to stay here, even after all that he's done. He feels incredibly guilty already, not to mention embarrassed, yet here she is, asking him if he would like to stay the night. Swallowing, he glances down at his hands. The sick feeling hasn't fully receded yet, and in the back of his head he still feels dizzy, off kilter. There's no way he can return home, not after escaping knowing full well they wanted to lock him back up again, but the chances of finding a place to stay before it rains again? Minimal. He could feel it in his bones, a sluggish feeling that warned him on an instinctual level not to brave the weather, for he would lose.

"-if you don't want to its fine."

He blinks, chastising himself almost immediately, "No no, I want to stay."

"Cool, I'll set up the couch for ya." Fionna skips away, climbing the ladder like structure with agile moves, disappearing from view as Flame Prince watches blinking. Oh glob, did he just agree to stay?

He just blurted it out, not wanting to hurt her feelings, not wanting to hurt her at all, not after what she's done for him.

He could just leave. He glances at the door. It would only take a few seconds and he could be home free. He steps towards the wooden door, but the grumbling in his stomach worsens, a signal, if any, not to leave.

Hand frozen in mid-air, he debates with himself. Stay, and possibly hurt this hero more, or go, and maybe kill himself in the process.

In the end he didn't have to make the decision, as the girl returns just in time, brandishing a blanket and a whole bunch of pillows. She waves them in the air.

"Found your bed!"

He follows awkwardly behind her, glancing at the door but her hand clasps his and he looks down at their entwined hands in shock, registering his low heat with concern. If he's cold enough for her to touch him without being hurt, maybe he really is sick, and maybe it is a good idea to stay. She squeezes his hand, pointing to the makeshift bed.

"Fit for... Uh, well I guess it isn't fit for royalty, I'm really sorry, I don't have anything else."

He shakes his head, smiling, "This is more than enough," he brings her knuckle to his lips, thanking her the only way he knows how, pressing a kiss to one delicate knuckle, "Thank you."

She blushes, and he decides there and then that that's one of his favourite things about her, "Ah, no problem dude."

The metallic zing has them both turning to see BMO, the little computer Fionna has, brandishing a sheet of tin foil, "Fire boy won't burn down the house."

Flame Prince blinks blearily, the rays of sunshine leaking through the curtains annoying the heck out of him for waking him up. And why is his lamp so damn uncomfortable all of a sudden? Unless his mother had tampered with it, yet again.

He sits up abruptly, blinking. Curtains? Sunshine?

The place is unfamiliar yet familiar all at the same time, and it's too early for him to work out the facts, his brain turning images sluggishly in his mind as the foil crinkles loudly beneath him, and then he remembers Fionna. The princess who didn't want him but wanted him and her cat that's also her sister even though Flame Prince is pretty sure it isn't biologically possible. Kicking his legs over the edge of the sofa, he stands, reigniting with a burst of energy. It acts as a poor imitation of a bath and a change of clothes as well. He imagines the new outfit in his head as the flames work at his body, licking at his frame until the process is complete. He admires his new clothing with a glance down his body, much like his old clothes, except the new outfit lacks the formality of royalty and caters more for battle, light armour ish.

Now, he needs to find the girl. And avoid the cat.

He winces, remembering the cats claws embedded in his face as he makes his way onto the centre of the room, cocking his head to the side. A girlish laugh trails through the window followed by the clanking of metal. Outside.

He opens the door with concentrated effort, careful not to burn the structure.

Fionna.

She flips in the air, bringing her sword down on a metal object mid-flight before rolling to the ground, a happy grin on her face as the little computer, BMO, was it? throws another metal component into the air. Flame Prince watches, amazed as she kicks off of a rock, using the momentum to twist in the air and slice the thing in half. Glob, she can fight.

Flame Prince also notes how pretty she looks, her blonde hair escaping her bunny hat slightly, little curls appearing here and there as she twirls again, and a strange sensation settles in his stomach as he watches her. Ignoring it, he invites his flames, flying towards her and dropping besides the little robot with a sizzle. The robot doesn't even flinch, but Fionna stops, wiping her brow with her forearm before blushing madly.

"Oh, hey," she pants, "Sorry, didn't realise you were up."

Flame Prince waves the worry away, "It's cool, you're busy."

She shakes her head, a small smile playing on her pink lips, "Not really, just practicing." she points behind him, "I here there's some wood in the enchanted forest down the road that never turns to ash when burnt, I was thinking maybe we could build you a house?"

Surprised at her offer, Flame Prince turns, spotting a forest of in the distance. It looks like any other forest and he frowns.

"I know a rad place for it, and Marshall Lee will totally help carry all the wood, since Cakes out with Lord M."

"Marshall Lee?" why does he recognise the name? Something in his head whirls and images come forth, but before they can solidify Fionna waves a hand, shaking her head, "Just this awesome guy, come on, we can go meet him."

The cave is huge, a cavern in the earth that has Flame Prince glancing around as Fionna leads them deeper into the darkness. His flames light the way, and he can just hear the trickling of water above the sound of his own flames. The place smells like dirty water, and Flame Prince wrinkles his nose as he traces the ragged walls of the cave with his eyes.

A cottage like home sits on a flat plane, and Fionna agilely coasts up to it, banging on the door with her fist.

"Marshall Lee! Get your butt out here!"

A shiny object grabs his attention, and he leans down, shooting a small ball of flame at it. It zings, bouncing off of the ground.

"Fionna," a new voice has Flame Prince looking up, "What the junk?! Do you realise what time it is?!"

A floating figure appears in the doorway, and Flame Prince stands upright, narrowing his eyes as the cogs begin to turn in his mind. The new figure comes into the light, his demon red eyes flitting towards Flame Prince seconds before outrage registers on his grey face, and suddenly Flame Prince remembers.

"Fionna! What the heck is he doing here?!"

Fionna glances around, confused, "Wait, you two have met before?"

"Uh, yeah!" the vampire king hisses, floating out of the house and closer to the now smirking fire prince, "This dude set me on fire!"

Fionna gasps, "FP!"

Flame Prince glances to the princess, raising an eyebrow but the vampire king cuts in before he can answer her.

"I was just minding my own business, partying in Fire town, you know, livening it up-"

"He was spraying the fire people with a water gun," Flame Prince interjects drily.

"Yeah, as I said, having fun, when this dude just up and burst all of his flame powers and burns me!"

Flame Prince smirks, recalling the memory. Years ago, when he was just a kid and the vampire king came floating into the castle brandishing a water gun with an evil smirk. Flame Prince hadn't been imprisoned then, and could run around freely in the castle. Finding the king spraying his people, Flame Prince sent a bunch of fireballs at the vampire who yelled like a baby.

"FP, you shouldn't burn people," Fionna scowls and Marshall smirks, "And you shouldn't be spraying the fire people with water!"

The vampire king shrugs, floating over to the prince with a grin, "Aw, baby pwince has grown up."

"Aw, old man still wears teenagers clothing."

The king scowls, hissing.

"I can see you two are getting along, but Marshall," Fionna steps between them, pressing a hand to Marshall's chest and Flame Prince frowns at the action, it doesn't sit well with him for some reason, "I need a favour."

Marshall glances down at her, "Depends what it is..."

She huffs, "I just need a little help collecting some wood for FP's house, in the enchanted forest."

"No way, not for him," the king jabs a finger at the prince and he scowls back.

"Come on Marshall! Do this for... This strawberry."

"Fionna your hand is empty."

She attempts to smile, rubbing her finger tips together, "It's invisible."

Marshall cocks his head to the side, considering something as he floats around the prince, "Okay, I'll help, but you owe me big time, Fi."

Signing in relief, Fionna turns to them both, seeing them glaring at each other, "Mathematical! Let's go."

Fionna groans, kicking the grass as the bickering flows in one ear and out the other. They've been like this all day, snapping at each other with smart ass comments trying to collect the wood. Multiple times Fionna has had to separate them, not because they were fighting, but because of the tricks they keep playing on each other. When Marshall threatened to pour a bucket of water on FP, FP merely shrugged, sending another small bolt of flame at the vampires hair, who retaliated by morphing into a giant bat, which then had Flame Prince morphing into a giant fire figure. Fionna has lost count of the times she's had to intercede them, giving both guys a stern warning as they traverse the enchanted forest, avoiding the traps left by the witches no thanks to them two. She sighs, rubbing her eyes as they crest the hill leading to the spot for Flame Princes new house.

"Fionna!" whines Marshall, and she turns to see the vampire patting his head as small flames burn his hair, "Tell him!"

FP looks at her innocently, holding up the wood in his arms, "I swear I didn't do it, my arms are full, see."

Marshall whips out a bottle of water with a nozzle, squirting the prince, "Bad Flame Prince, no!"

FP drops the wood, his eyes narrowed as he sends another ball of fire at the king who narrowly dodges it, squirting the prince yet again.

"Guys!" she shouts, dropping her own wood, "Seriously, getting tired of your crap!"

Marshall drops to the ground, his face drawn down in mock shame and Flame Prince looks down at his feet too, shuffling from foot to foot.

"Sorry Fionna," they both say simultaneously, whirling on each other with a scowl.

Fionna rolls her eyes, ignoring them as she makes her way over to the spot. She's known about it for a while now, the green grass is lush and thick, and a small cliff just a few feet away hangs over a lake at the bottom that shimmers in the moonlight at night, a perfect place, in her opinion. It's hidden enough to not attract strangers, but open enough to not feel suffocated. She came here to think when she needed alone time, and what better person to share it with than Flame Prince. She watches him now, carrying a pile of wood as he scowls at the vampire. His hair is longer, if that's even possible, slicking back almost but still in his trademark Mohawk, the flames flickering in the air and they grow brighter as the vampire waggles his eyebrows at the prince, and Fionna jumps when Flame Prince lands a blow to the vampires face, a punch so lightning fast she's not sure whether it really happened. Marshall stumbles, whirling on the prince as he guffaws, clutching his stomach and cheek at the same time. She can just hear their conversation as they near her.

"Jeez man, you need to lighten up."

Noting his gnashed teeth, Fionna takes a few pieces of wood from him, adding it to the accumulated pile. They've been coming back here all day, dropping off pieces of wood, and now it towers over them, a two story structure that took hard work and determination. Fionna's still surprised they managed to pull it off this quickly. With a last, whimsical look, she steps aside, and the Flame Prince with one final scowl at Marshall, presses his hand against the wood. She can feel the charge in the air, like static passing over her skin, raising goose bumps as FP charges his flame, his entire frame becoming brighter seconds before a sonic boom echoes around them, and the entire structure goes up in flames in an instant. Fionna gasps, stepping back as does Marshall as the heat swamps her, consuming her and she stares in a somewhat dazed manner at the prince. She knew she wouldn't regret telling him about this place. The smile on his face makes her feel happy, content and he disappears in a wisp of flames, entering the house and the flames for a moment grow brighter, before the Flame Prince coalesces in front of them with a swirl of his flames.

"It's amazing," he breathes, and he hugs Fionna briefly, pushing away quickly before she can feel the full impact of his heat, "Thank you."

Fionna blushes, scuffing her shoes on the ground, "N-No problem, FP."

She glances up to see Marshall frowning, his mouth open as he stares at Fionna and she smiles, "Thanks for helping us Marshall, I owe you one."

He nods, and the Flame Prince surprises them both when he nods at the vampire king, "Yeah, thanks for your help."

Marshall shakes his head, "It's cool, and yeah, you do Fi," with a wink, he floats into the air, "I'll be back to collect it," he grins mischievously at FP who frowns back, "Later."

The way he says it has Fionna flushing in embarrassment, and FP notices her pink face with a scowl.

"This house looks mathematical," she eventually says, staring up at it with dove eyes, "If I could live here, I totally would, you know, if I didn't burn into ash."

He smiles as she rounds the house, pointing out her favourite things as he follows behind. Eventually she stops, glancing back at the Flame Prince she takes off her backpack. Cake, despite her insistence that she can pack her own globbing backpack, always adds a bunch of stuff when she isn't looking, even if Fionna has already packed it to the brim, you can bet the magical cat will have her paws in it at least sometime before they go off on their adventures. That's not to say she isn't thankful, many a times Fionna's desperately needed something and then voila, Cake pulls it out of her backpack without a second thought. She finds it with a grin, the shiny metal foil winking up at her through the clutter of her personal belongings and she pulls it out. Oh Cake.

She moves to show the prince, but she stops when she sees him wary, his head cocked to the side with his eyes scanning the distant trees and mountains. Quiet, she waits, mouth open. He jerks, his eyes fastening to her with unadulterated panic and he dissipates into pure flames, surging towards her where he coalesces. His mouth quirks when he sees the foil, and wordlessly he takes it off of her and begins to quickly wrap it around her forearms. Fionna blinks in amazement as his hands set to work, the foil enfolding her forearms with efficient movements until when he grabs her, she can't feel any pain.

"FP."

He ignores her, looking up over her head with a scowl as he drags her behind one of the boulders nearby.

"FP, what's going on?!"

He shushes her. He actually shushes her, pressing his finger to his lips and she scowls petulantly. Nobody shushes her, even Cake doesn't shush her. Opening her mouth, she's about to give FP a verbal bashing when she hears the hiss of conversation just a few feet away.

Flame Prince ducks, crouching beside her and she raises an eyebrow. What the glob is going on? Who's joined them? This place is pretty secluded and hard to navigate too, so they must've been searching for it for days.

Also, she's sitting awkwardly on a little pebble, and it's really starting to ache. Shifting, she tries to dislodge it, pulling a face as she moves again. Jeez, what is with this pebble?

Flame Prince glowers down at her, and she raises her eyebrows.

"What?!" she whisper shouts, and he glances over the boulder before looking back down.

"Seriously? Shh."

She shakes her head, "Don't shush me!"

He presses a finger against her lips before pulling back with a grimace, imitating her own as her lips sting, "Sorry."

Shaking her head, she waves his apology away. He glances over the rock, his face relaxing instantly and he stands, running a hand down his face as he extends his own hand. Pulling the foil around her hands from her arms, she takes it and he pulls her up.

"What was that about?"

She glances around the place, seeing new multiple burn marks marring the perfect green grass.

"Who was here?"

He purses his lips with a scowl, "Family."

"What do they want?"

"Me."

She gives him a sharp look, and he rubs his eyes.

"They want to take me back to the fire kingdom, and not let me back out again."

"Why would they want that? That's your family! They should want you to be free and junk."

He attempts a smile, "Yeah, well it's not my family that want me locked up, it's some other guy, I don't know who he is though."

Fionna quirks an eyebrow, her adventure mind whirling into a frenzy. A mystery. A true, globbing mystery, and it concerns her... Friend.

"Dude, I can totally help you with that!"

He raises an eyebrow as she digs in her backpack, yanking out a bunch of junk and setting them down on the grass. She finds her notebook and grabs a pencil, crossing her legs and facing the prince as he copies.

"Okay, so we make a plan to stop these dudes and return you to your righteous glory, you feel me?"

She watches as his lips curl into a crooked smile.

"So tell me, FP," she puts pen to paper, "Where did this all start?"

Flame Prince watched Fionna as she scribbled meticulously on her little notepad, sticking her tongue out in concentration with a furrow in her blonde eyebrows. He realised right then and there that she's incredibly cute when she's concentrating, beautiful even, seeing her mind work around all the intricacies was amazing, is amazing. Sighing, she puts the notepad down, blowing a blonde lock out of her face which flops down again, and he longs to reach forwards and brush it out of her face. Involuntarily, his hand reaches forwards and in his core he concentrates, pursing his lips as he tries to quell the urge to burn, to increase his flames instead of decreasing them. It hurts a little, like pins and needles, but he urges through it, quelling his flames until his hand no longer burns bright, but instead has a low lull. He captures the blonde lock, feeling its silky texture in his hand, admiring it before tucking it behind one of her ears. Sighing, he pulls back, his flames bursting into an out of breath inferno inside his core. Banking them, he closes his eyes, concentrating so they don't escape and soon they calm down enough for him to open his eyes.

Fionna stares at him, mouth agape, cheeks red, and he can feel his own cheeks grow hot as he rubs the back of his neck, "Sorry."

She shakes her head, dislodging the lock yet again, "Uh... It's fine, I mean, thanks."

This time it's easier to control himself, practice makes perfect, after all, and he leans forwards, pushing the blonde lock back. This time he doesn't pull back, instead his brain doesn't respond, his hand curving around her cheekbone, marvelling at the soft texture, at the delicious vanilla smell wafting perpetually off of her. He can hear the stutter in her breath, her surprised gasp as he trails a finger down her jaw line, eyes trained on the perfect specimen before him. Blinking, he stops at her plump pink lips and she inhales sharply, bringing his eyes up to her blue ones. They remind him of water, and for once he likes that, in fact, he loves that trait about her. His eyes once again return to her pink lips, soft and welcoming and he almost jerks back when her small pink tongue swipes across her bottom lip, a nervous gesture. Unconsciously he leans in, eyes trained on hers as he measures her response, and his entire frame dances with fire in delight when she leans forwards too.

Maybe too delighted.

She hisses, jerking back from his hand still on her jaw and he scowls, before realisation dawns on him as her jaw begins to turn an angry pink in the shape of his fingertips.

Staring down at his hands, he scowls, "I'm sorry, I thought... I thought I had them in control."

"Fionna!" a new voice has him whipping his head to the side, seeing a huge bird come swooping down on to the field along with an oddly pink man. He rushes towards them; eyes angry as he reaches them, dragging Fionna away from him with an angry jerk, "Stand back!"

"What the junk Gumball?!" the adventuress yells, steadying herself and the pink guy turns an apologetic glance in her direction.

"Apologies, Fionna, but this boy is dangerous!" he backs them away as he says this, his pink eyes jerking above his head and Flame Prince glances up too, too late, his fellow fire elementals swoop down, covered head to toe in black armour glistening with veins of lava, and they grab his shoulders with one hand and pull his arm back with the other, until he is hunched painfully forwards. He knows what's coming next, he's seen these guys in action thousands of times from his lamp, yet it still doesn't prepare him for the all-consuming agony that lances through his wrists, a pain so vivid and great that black spots appear in his vision, and he almost wishes he would pass out but he knows there's no escape in unconsciousness, not for his kind, anyway, when the ice manacles clamp around his wrists.

Fionna yelps and he blinks, his entire frame hunching as he tries to distract himself from the pain, gritting his teeth as the soldiers stand him up. He can barely hold himself up, the damage the ice is inflicting, not just normal ice, no, this ice is specially manufactured to cause the utmost harm for him, is too much, and he stumbles as they begin to drag him on, following Fionna and the pink guy who march a few steps ahead. Fionna lunges for him but the pink guy holds her fast.

"Fionna, listen to me, this guy is dangerous! He's unstable!"

Fionna shakes her head, reaching for him and he's surprised to see tears in her eyes, "No Gumball, I know him, he's not dangerous!"

The pink guy scowls, holding her jaw with gentle fingers and Flame Prince almost growls in jealousy, but his strength is leeching out of him, "If he is so safe, why is there a burn mark marring your jaw?"

She shakes her head again, her bunny hat dislodging even further, "It was an accident, he didn't mean-"

He cuts her off, glaring at him with pink eyes, "He," he says to Fionna, his eyes never leaving him, "Is dangerous."

The walk to the unknown destination is short for the adventuress and the guards, but incredibly long for him. He's lost count of how many times he's blacked out, even for a couple of seconds as the guards ignore it, dragging him along when his feet no longer carried him. Eventually the pain reached equilibrium and he could just pull through it, gritting his teeth as he stumbles along with them, his eyes never leaving the pink guys back. Anger, so much anger, it consumes him, writhing in his stomach and chest, in his arms and his hands itch to burn his sweet smelling captor. But Fionna is there, and she obviously has some sort of connection with the guy, why else would he want to protect her? So, despite himself, he won't burn the guy. At least, not in front of her.

The grass changes into yellow cobbles and they release a sweet, lemon scent whenever his feet linger too long on one of them. The fire guards have no such problem, in control of their powers enough so that they don't burn everything they step on. The icy manacles do their job though, and eventually even his flames no longer burn the cobbles, too weak to even think about. They lead him through a draw bridge, Fionna glancing back at him every few seconds, her eyebrows knitted in worry as she stumbles alongside the pink guy escorting them. The streets, lit up only by the waning sun and the street lamps start to empty as they traverse them, the little candy people running to their houses and cowering as soon as they see him. He smiles slightly, his anger pouring off of him as they huddle back. Some part of him hopes Fionna doesn't judge him, doesn't see them judging him and cowering away from him. The reason as to why they're doing this confuses him to no end; he hasn't even met these people in his entire life. Maybe it's because he's perpetually on fire.

They enter a castle, a huge structure that mimics his mothers in the fire kingdom, except this one is made up of ghastly pink and yellow stones, and it stinks of candy to high heaven. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, he follows as the guards drag him down a long winding hallway, full of furniture that must be a decade old. He stumbles, landing on one of them awkwardly, his torso hitting the arm and he grunts as the wood bursts into flames. A peppermint like thing runs into view with an extinguisher and puts out the flames, much to his displeasure, the dampened flames strike at his core, and he doubles over as he's dragged on, the death of his own flames is like a part of him dying. They descend a set of stairs at gradually turn from the dusted pink to charcoal brown, the smell of chocolate heavy in the air as he's marched forcefully down the winding steps, deeper into the earth, the only source of light being the lanterns on the side of the walls. Fionna pleads with the guy, her voice breaching the wall that seems to have been built in his hearing, the pain dampening every other sense. Flame Prince can only blink blearily as they pass small rooms with bars as thick as his bicep creating a prison, and his heart stutters in his chest, fear accompanying the pain at the prospect of being locked again. They're taking his freedom and there's absolutely nothing he can do about it. The oxygen here is thin, enough to keep his flames going but only at the most minimal level, and he thinks that's why they've decided to put him here. He can't burn down the place.

To his horror, they stop at one of the open prisons and without a backward glance they toss him inside, the clank of the prison bars slamming shut causing his heart to race as he falls clumsily onto the dirt floor, groaning. He can just hear Fionna's angry voice penetrating the haze of his own fear, but even that begins to fade. Instead of sobbing, he succumbs to the darkness, closing his eyes as the fear reaches its crescendo and he passes out.


	5. Chapter 5

5:

Fionna grabs Gumball's arm, panicking as they leave the dungeons and the prince behind, especially considering the state he's in. She's never seen him look so hurt, even in the rain he still had some kind of life to him, but now, he just looks dead. The ice handcuffs they put around him immediately leached his arms of all flames and his skin turned to a dull grey, and that leeching process continued as they walked, slowly but surely and Fionna wanted to punch herself in the face for not doing anything. She froze, it's Gumball after all, he knows about all this stuff because of his science brain and junk, but now the anger from earlier is resurfacing, and she glares up at the gummy pink prince.

"Gumball! What the glob is going on?!"

He glances back at the two fire dudes and they walk away without any other prompting, leaving the two alone in the halls, "Fionna, you're too young to understand right now, but that guy is dangerous, hence the reason I had him locked up."

Fionna flinches, eyes wide. He locked FP up, he was the one who took away eleven years of his life, imprisoned him in a glass lantern and kept him there, saying he was dangerous. Just like now.

And she isn't too young! What is with him thinking she's too young?!

"You have to let him go! I've seen what he's like and he isn't dangerous!"

Gumball shakes his head and motions for her to follow, and she does with a heavy heart, each step like a stake in her chest as they leave him behind and enter Gumball's lab. He presses a button on one of his gadgets and up comes a holographic screen, blue with yellow diagrams flickering into place. He immediately begins to explain the diagram, but his long words confuse her to no end.

"So you see, his biological structure won't be physically capable of handling any extreme emotions," he pointedly glances back at her then, "Especially romance."

Fionna shakes her head, "We're just friends, and he can control himself just find, he's touched me loads of times without burning me!"

She flushes at the sound of her words.

"I mean, he's touched my face and junk."

Gumball shakes his head, "He is physically unstable."

Fionna wishes Cake was here, she would know what to say to convince him to let him go.

"What are you going to do with him?"

Gumball turns the hologram off with a flick of his fingers, "Either send him back to his lantern, or douse him."

Fionna lurches, feeling like someone's round house kicked her in the chest at his words. Douse him? Kill him, he means, "Gumball."

Something changes in Gumballs face, going from stone cold resolution to worry as he rushes over to her, "Fionna, heavens, what's wrong?"

"You can't kill him," the words come out choked, and she looks up into the Prince's pink eyes, "You can't, he's good, he won't hurt anyone."

Gumball looks down at her with pity, and she hates it, hates the way he still sees her as a child.

"What if I can prove it?"

"Prove what? That he's in control?"

Fionna nods, wrapping her arms around her middle in a vain attempt to soothe her writhing insides, "Yeah, I mean, if I can, that means he can control his powers and junk, and you won't have to hurt him."

Gumball purses his lips, and she knows what his answer is before he can even say it, "I'm sorry Fionna, but too much lies on the line, I'm surprised his mother even let him out! I warned her."

Fionna can feel the tears burning her eyes, and she walks away before they can fall, clutching her stomach as her chest heaves. Her footsteps echo in her ears, masking the sounds of her gasping breaths as she makes her way towards the exit of the castle. The pain searing through her chest is consuming her, surprising her. She didn't realise until now just how much the prince has grown on her in such a short amount of time, how could one person have such an effect on her? It's absurd, yet she knows that she can't stand the thought of him being hurt, not like the usual feelings she has for others, a general care that has her rescuing them, no, this is different, more intense, all consuming, and she doesn't know what to do. Abruptly the tears fall, and she begins to run out of the castle, wiping them away with jerky movements. The candy people ask her what's wrong, genuine concern filling their voices but she can only ignore them, desperate to escape and when she reaches the grassy lands she breaks down, kneeling and clutching her middle. Flame Prince is going to die. She has no doubt about it. Gumball already said he's tried sending him to his mother, imprisoning him, so why would he try it again? The tears stop, and she can only feel numb, spreading through her limbs as she stares down at the green blades striking her bare knees. She has to do something; she can't just sit by and let it happen.

She thumps the ground with her fist, gritting her teeth. If only Cake were here, she's so good at words and junk, she would've explained to Gumball.

"Boo!"

Fionna doesn't even flinch as the vampire king floats down besides her, sitting on the grass with a graceful flourish.

"Fionna." the vampire sings, and she stares down at the grass, afraid in case the tears come again.

"Go away, Marshall."

She didn't intend for her demand to be so harsh, but it sounds horrible, and she immediately apologises, "Sorry, uh, I just want to be alone."

Marshall leans back, and Fionna realises then just how late it is, "What's wrong, bunny?"

She doesn't refute the nickname, and Marshall pokes his head into her field of view.

"Jeez, Fionna, have you been crying?!"

"No!" she wipes angrily at her face, scowling to find her fingertips still wet.

"Yes you have," he drags her face to his, turning her jaw in his hands and she scowls, looking anywhere but him, "What happened?"

She shakes her head, trying to pull away but he holds fast.

"Fionna." he warns, and she sighs.

"Gumball was the one who imprisoned FP."

Marshall cocks his head to the side, "You act like this is news."

Fionna gasps, recoiling, "You knew?!"

The vampire shrugs, rolling his eyes, "Yeah, everyone knew, you mean, you didn't?"

She shakes her head.

"Glob, you really need to start paying attention to things Fionna, you have the attention span of a fly."

She attempts to scowl, but her inner turmoil prevents her from seeing humour in the situation.

"Fionna, Gumball had his reasons, heck, the guy beat me up when he was just a toddler."

This makes Fionna smile, a little smile and Marshall smiles back, except his is one of sadness.

"But," she begins, clutching her knees to her chest, "He's not evil, he can control himself, and now Gumballs locked him back up again and I don't know what to do!"

Marshall crosses his own legs, "Gumball may be a wad, but he has smarts, so he must be doing it for a reason."

She hated him for making her see the logic in Gumballs actions, and she glares up at the vampire, "You saw him, you saw how he could control himself, you saw how kind he was and junk."

"Fionna," the vampire chuckles, "Flame Prince was a jerk to me, but to be fair I was a jerk back."

Fionna shakes her head, "But you saw how nice he was to me, he's always nice," she doesn't mention how they met, "And now he's locked up again, without them even seeing for themselves."

Marshall bites his lip with a fang, "He was weirdly nice to you, I'll give you that, but, I can see the mark on your jaw Fionna."

She presses her fingertips to her jaw, wincing as it protests with a dull ache, "This doesn't mean anything, before this he was fine. He touched me."

Marshall bites back his laugh and Fionna scowls, cheeks turning red.

"For Globs sake I didn't mean it like that! I mean, he touched my cheek, my... My lips and junk, and he didn't burn me, it's only when I-"

Fionna stops, blinking, Gumballs words returning to her.

His biological structure won't be physically capable of handling any extreme emotions.

Especially romance

Especially romance...

"When you did what?"

Fionna blinks, pressing a finger to her lips. They didn't actually kiss, but she's pretty sure that's what was going to happen, "When I was going to kiss him."

Marshall jerks back, his eyes wide, "Fionna!"

"What?!" she yells defensively. "I'm sixteen for globs sake, I'm sick of everybody still treating me like a child!"

Marshall holds up his hands, "Okay, okay, but still. Good little girl trying to smooch boys?"

She punches his chest and he chuckles.

A few seconds pass in silence, the only sound being her own breathing as she contemplates their next move. If they even have any.

Reality threatens to crush her, and she knows deep inside that there's not really anything she can do, not when Gumball's involved.

"You really like this guy, huh?"

Fionna pauses. Does she? She likes him, sure, but really like him? Her chest heaves at the thought of never seeing him again, and that's her answer. She nods.

"Then," Marshall says, standing and pulling her to her feet, "We best go help him escape."

"Are you sure this will work?"

Marshall glances back at her in alarm, holding his finger to his lips, "Shh!"

Fionna raises her shoulders in defence. They've been scoping the castle from in the air for a good hour before Marshall flew them down, thankfully. Fionna thought she was going to throw up the longer they remained in the air, plus, it's pretty darn cold, and Marshall Lee is like living ice. Crouching beside him in the shadows, they watch as one of the banana guards pass the hall for the fifth time, whistling a tune as he goes.

"Right, so, because I'm awesome, I've figured out that these guys walk around every ten minutes, so we have a ten minute window to get the prince out okay?"

Fionna nods, eyes trained on the entrance to the dungeons, different to the one that leads down from Gumball's castle. This one, situated not too far from the castle, boasts steel bars that seem impenetrable until Marshall gets his hands on them. He lifts the structure, groaning as Fionna slips under the metal spikes, "Wanna hurry?"

Fionna rolls, "Sorry."

Marshall slips in and sets the gate down with a grunt, "Don't worry, I'm pretty built."

She looks pointedly at his slender frame, "Uh huh."

He scowls, "Hey, I'm helping you remember, you might want to compliment me."

She chuckles, "Sorry, you're very muscley Marshall Lee."

He smiles, nodding, pleased with himself, "Thanks, I work out."

Rolling her eyes, she rushes down the long corridor arching above her. It's small and built with cobbles that leak water onto her head, the constant dripping sound creating an eery atmosphere. The smell is dank, and Fionna wrinkles her nose as she comes to a cross roads, the tunnel splitting off into two directions.

"Uh," She glances back at the floating vampire.

"I think it's left," he says with an eyebrow raised, "I mean, I haven't been down here for years."

Well, it will have to do. Fionna takes off down the corridor, running and weaving her way down the hall as it bends and curves, slipping on the stones and splashing in the puddles. This entrance is unlike the other one, this one isn't made out of candy, for a start, and it's much more remote, the occasional lantern emitting just enough light for her to successfully dodge the holes and hidden bumps. Finally she comes to a second gate, this one, thankfully, made out of candy and she wraps her fingers around it. The bars are coated with some form of colouring candy, mimicking steel but it's no match for her strength. Straining, she pulls and the bars snap.

"Heck yeah," she throws them on the ground and manoeuvres her way through the opening. Marshall floats right through it, hovering in the air on the other side as Fionna brushes down her skirt. The small room is lit up with small lights dotting the candy walls, and a staircase to the left of them leads both up and down. She can just make out the sounds of bustling activity upstairs, so she points to the stairs leading down and Marshall nods, swooping ahead and she runs to keep up. Her feet slap the stones and she grimaces. Glob, if Prince Gumball didn't hear that he must be deaf.

Marshall disappears around the spiralling staircase and she has a hard time keeping up, trailing a hand across the wall to steady herself as she increases her pace.

She skids to the ground, the stairs finally ending and she grins, looking left and right to see the dungeons leading off either way, prisons bordering either side.

Marshall grabs her, his hands wrapping around her arms and her mouth as he drags her into the shadows.

He glares down at her, nodding towards the oncoming guard and she stiffens, his cold fingers still across her lips. Weirdly, the guard doesn't notice them, instead walking straight past them, his eyes closed as he whistles a tune before disappearing around the corner.

Sighing, he lets her go and begins to float the way the guard just came from, "Hurry!"

She stumbles after him, clenching and unclenching her fists as she searches the prisons, worry increasing as each one shows up empty. She can't remember which one he's in.

Marshall stops and she bumps into him with a grunt. He glances back at her sharply and she shrugs apologetically.

He points, and she follows his finger, heart in her throat as she sees the orange glow coming from one of the cells. She doesn't think, she just does, and runs over to the cell. Inside, Flame Prince is still in the same position they left him, his flames so dull she would've thought he was dead, if not for the occasional movements of his chest. Curled up, he looks in pain, and she crouches besides the cells reaching in.

Marshall drags her up, "Right, I'll follow that guard and grab his keys, okay?"

She nods, "Can't you just break the bars?" she presses a finger again the bars, but they aren't candy, instead pure steel grazes her finger tip, "Never mind, I'll keep a lookout okay, if I whistle, that means a guard has come round, or that I've been caught, or that I'm dead."

He shakes his head at her and floats off, and Fionna immediately crouches down again, staring at the prince. His handsome face is knit in pain, his hands curled into fists and she reaches out again, her fingertips brushing the edge of his leg.

"FP." she whisper shouts, glancing back. Okay, maybe waking him up is a bad idea, but if she can just get a response, maybe get him to stand up, they'll be out of here in no time. Leaning against the bars, she forces more of her arm through, gritting her teeth as her fingers make pure, sweet contact. Clothing.

She yanks on it, and the prince murmurs in his sleep, shifting and she pulls harder, dragging him over to the bars with a wince. He's not even warm enough to burn her. His skin is a dull grey, barely a glow emitting from him. He's close enough now the she can touch him without having to stretch, and she strokes his biceps with light fingers, pursing her lips. Oh glob, he's not in good shape. He feels normal, like her, his temperature matching hers and for once that sends a spike of fear through her stomach.

"FP."

His eyelashes flutter, his mouth working as she continues to stroke his arm.

"Flame Prince."

Finally, slowly, he opens his eyes and she gasps. They are black, not red, not even grey, pure black, and he almost passes out again but she shakes his arm. Groaning, he opens his eyes wider and a smile, bless him, graces his lips as he sees her, his arm bunching under her fingers and he reaches out, through the bars. She gasps when his cool fingers touch her cheek.

"Fionna," he murmurs, and she nods, holding his hand to her face.

"We're busting you out, FP."

Marshall appears just then, holding up a ring of keys that jingle obscenely. They all cringe as the sound echoes through the dungeons, but Marshall makes quick work of the cell, opening the door. Flame Prince braces himself, pushing himself up but he grunts, slamming back down with a wheeze and a shake of his head. Fionna holds a hand under his arm, Marshall taking the other whilst looking sympathetically at Fionna. Nodding, they heave him up and FP groans in pain. Fionna winces, wrapping his arm around her neck. Thank glob he's taller than her, but his weight is a lot to bear, so she's thankful Marshall's here. Urging him on, Fionna pulls FP towards the stairs. His feet drag against the floor and he grunts, his warm breath brushing Fionnas cheek.

"Sorry, FP, but we gotta hurry."

The prince nods, grimacing as he pulls himself together in the blink of an eye, and Fionna hisses as a burst of heat shoots down her side, jumping back despite herself. Marshall does the same and they both stare, wide eyed as the Flame Prince grows brighter, his flames licking at his frame and he nods, and Fionna can just make out what she thinks is fire elementals version of sweat dotting his forehead.

"Okay, let's go." he wobbles his way towards the stairs, clutching his side as the two follow warily behind. Astonishingly, the prince makes it all the way up the stairs without a single complaint, a single falter. Fionna watches as he grunts, swaying and waiting for them. Fionna points to the broken bars and he studied them with a pained look. It would require a lot of moving, a lot of core manipulation. With a determined sigh, he spears through it with his flames, instead choosing his ethereal form. He coalesces on the other side and slumps to the ground on his knees. Marshall floats through and Fionna clumsily climbs through, rushing over to the prince but he stands before they can make it to him.

"I'm good," he breathes, panting now and Fionna knits her eyebrows.

"FP, we can rest, if you need too."

Marshall yanks on her shoulder, "Uh, Fionna, in case you're forgetting we have a time constraint."

The prince ignores them, marching ahead with a determined gaze. They must only have a few minutes left before the guard makes his next round and Fionna hurries after him.

She can't really believe it when they come to the gate again, but surely enough they're nearly there. Marshall lifts the gate and Fionna helps the prince through, holding it up once she's slipped through for Marshall. It clangs down and she grimaces again.

"Come on!" the vampire hisses and they jog out of the castles vicinity.

"Think you can fly over the wall?" Marshall asks, and FP glances up at the two story tall yellow structure, swallowing loudly.

"I can try."

Marshall grabs Fionna around the waist, nodding to the prince who with a grimace, activates his flames and Fionna can only watch on in admiration as he surges into the air, flowing over the wall and Marshall flies them over too. She grimaces as they reach the peak glancing back at the candy castle in case someone sees them, but thankfully no shouts of alarm can be heard and all of the windows are devoid of life.

The thud has her glancing down, and she yells in alarm despite herself, wriggling in Marshall's arms. FP slumps further to the ground, his knees no longer supporting his weight as he slumps forwards onto his front. As soon as her feet touch the floor, she races to him, skidding to a halt beside his collapsed frame.

"FP!"

He doesn't move, in fact, it doesn't look like he's breathing, his flames entirely extinguished. She flips him over, breathless at the feel of his cold skin.

"Marshall, help me, what do I do?"

The vampire floats over, worry straining his face as Fionna hovers uselessly over the dying prince. Her hands flutter clumsily, inches above his chest and she presses down on his sternum, bracing herself as she pushes down. Each pump fills her with dread, feeling his chest compress under her fingers but eliciting no response from him.

"FP! Please be okay!" she pauses, waiting ten seconds before starting again, "Please, please please," the words come out choked, a jumbled mess as he presses down, swallowing the cry rising in her closing throat.

"Marshall!"

He appears beside her, "Okay Okay, uh, I'll look for Flamba, keep doing what you're doing!"

She does so, tears escaping her eyes and burning down her cheeks, but she wipes them away before they can fall onto the prince as she compresses his chest. Each downward push sends a bolt of fear through her, no response, nothing, no flutter of life, no magical inhalation, no flicker of eyelids and she presses harder and harder, whimpers, sobs escaping her mouth as her desperation seeks new levels. Like water through her fingers, he's slipping away, further and further and further until there's no turning back, there's nowhere else for him, for her to go. The life fades away beneath her very fingertips, even as she whispers, shouts, screams his name as the minutes pass without a response. It's all so unfair, it's all so... Wrong. He shouldn't be in this situation. He hasn't even lived his life. Eleven years have been taken away from him, and just as he was gaining them years back, if not making up for them, he's going, almost gone. And it isn't fair. Fionna grits her teeth, breathing, gasping as she pushes down, sweat appearing on her forehead before she leans back, waiting for the inhalation, waiting for his chest to at least respond. Her breathing echoes like knives in her ears, as it's the only breathing she can hear.

"What happened?!"

Fionna doesn't take her eyes off of the prince as Flamba pounces over to them. The little kitten prowls over his body and Fionna sits back on her calves, wiping her tears away with her forearm, sniffing.

"Oh guys, this is bad, we gotta get him back to FQ."

"No!" Fionna hisses and the little flame kitten looks at her as if she's gone mad.

Fionna purses her lips before carrying on, "They'll lock him back up again!"

Flamba's face softens, "Oh."

"Yeah, Oh." Fionna says bitterly, before apologising, "Sorry, is there anything else we can do?!"

Flamba stares into the Prince's face, "No, only royalty has the kind of medication available."

Fionna sighs, staring down at his deathly pale face, "He's going to hate me for is, but we need to get him help, and if what you say is true, then we need to take him back home."

Flamba nods, and Fionna glances up at the floating vampire, "Please could you help me carry him there?"

Marshall looks around uneasily, but seeing her face, he relents, floating down and scooping the prince up bridal style, "I'll carry him, just keep up."

Grunting, Marshall flies ahead and Fionna stumbles to a stand, before facing after the floating figures. Her legs burn after a few minutes, her breathing becomes laboured and soon her side's moaning in protest but she powers through it. Forcing her legs to move forwards, inhaling deeper, stronger and she passes the runners wall with ease, keeping up with the vampire as the little fire kitten runs beside her. Soon, the fiery embers can be seen floating in the gradually reddening sky, and she sighs in relief as the fire kingdom and all its glory comes into view, skidding to a stop at the border. The floor shifts abruptly from green grass to solidified magma, and she kneels down, fingertips bordering the edge. The heat absorbs her, consumes her until sweat begins to bead on her forehead. Her lungs hurt, the warm air not helping as she breathes in heartily.

Flamba stops beside her, and Fionna glances at her helplessly, "What do I do? I can't get in!"

The kitten ignores her, running up and pouncing on her face and Fionna yelps in surprise as the flames immediately burn her. And then suddenly, the burning stops, instead, she feels cold, her whole body being doused in a pungent cool wash.

"Hurry will ya!" the kitten hisses, jumping away and Fionna follows without hesitation, no longer fearing the heat as they skid down the rocky hill, clamber around the lava encrusted peaks and head straight for the castle. It's huge, with rocky spears that pierce the blood red sky. Ignoring the embers that seem to be floating perpetually in her face, she races to the front, ignoring the guards posted outside as they shout in response to her unannounced arrival. The place reminds Fionna of an arena as she enters, the hall is huge with gaping holes that mimic windows, allowing the inhabitants to see the entirety of the fire kingdom spreading out ahead of them. Seats inhabit the entire left hand side of the place, curling around the room until it meets the raised platform, a jagged structure boasting a huge seat, a seat currently being sat on by the Flame Queen herself. Standing, she jabs a finger at Fionna but Marshall interrupts the announcement, floating to the ground and laying the limp prince down on the ground. Everything becomes suddenly quiet as they all collectively stare at the prince, murmur coming to a stuttering halt, exclamations dying on the edge of their tongues.

It's only a few seconds, but it's enough for the gravity of the situation to settle fully on Fionna. She can barely hear as the ruckus begins again, as the Flame Queen orders the guards to fetch the medical staff and the onlookers to leave.

"Fionna!"

She blinks, looking up at Marshall who glances at the prince.

"It's not really ideal for me to be here, you know, the whole water gun thing, so I'm going to have to leave."

She nods, grasping his hand, "Thank you! You've helped me so much, I owe you like a bajillion strawberries."

Marshall grins, "Damn right you do."

He smiles and flies off; leaving Fionna in the presence of the mountain of fire that is the queen of the fire kingdom.

She really wishes Cake were here right now.


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it! Hope you like this chapter, its got a little something something at the end for all you guys :)

6:

Everything hurts, everything's cold, why is everything so cold? Ice surrounds him, consuming him, his worst nightmares come to life and he can't move. Every limb feels like a lead weight has been cast upon it, every inhalation costs him energy that he can't spare. But he feels familiar, and the urgency leaves him for a few seconds as he feels the padding of the bottom of his glass lamp. Maybe he's had a bad dream? Happens occasionally. Being in the lamp can sometimes drain you mentally and physically, maybe he's just having another episode. Fighting past the fog in his brain, he forces his eyes open and grimaces as the light from the fires surrounding him blind him momentarily, spearing his brain. A headache pounds in his head, but he ignores it as he pushes up, groaning as the world tilts and his arms fail. With a huff, he gives it another try, blinking rapidly as his core threatens to extinguish.

Yeah, he's definitely in his lamp. The glass walls surround him, distorting the world around him as he stands, pressing his hands against the cool glass. His mother sits below him, the people sit in their seats amongst the stands.

And then something just clicks, a flood of images flushing through his head and he gasps as the memories come flooding back. Escaping the lamp, finding Fionna, building his new home, being captured by the pink guy, Fionna freeing him. And then he passed out. Or did he?

The entire debacle seems shady, his memories blurred. Did that all really happen?

Anger rises in him as he presses his hands further into the glass. If it did, then surely he should be free now, instead of here in this lamp. Unless they caught him again. Panic surges through him and his flames begin to lick at the surface of the lamp. Panic, anger, confusion, it battles for supremacy inside of him until it combines into one and he stumbles back, gritting his teeth. His flames want out, but his body just simply can't handle it. And so he does the next best thing.

Fall, fall to his knees. He stares down at his hands, heart thumping in his chest.

Did it all really happen? Is Fionna even real? Or a figment of his imagination?

What if he's just losing himself? Finally snapping, dying. His mind breaking under the constant isolation.

Or maybe Fionna is real. And she's decided for real this time she doesn't want him. Thoughts battle in his head.

And all he can do is stare down at his lamp floor, hands curled in rage. What does it matter?

What does it matter?

...

Fionna glares up at the gaping window, its crooked edges distorting the inside of the fire kingdom castle. Perched on a ledge directly below it, she ponders over a plan. Cake swings her legs over the edge, admiring the sprawling landscape. Despite its volatile nature, the fire kingdom is truly a beautiful place, mesmerising, even. As soon as Fionna arrived at the fire kingdom, the queen kicked her out, and she could only watch as the prince was wheeled away on a stretcher as the guards manhandled her. They took her right to the border of the kingdom, physically throwing her back into the grasslands. The only thing she could do was go get Cake, who screamed at her for not telling her for so long. After showering and finding Flamba again, who seems to have a habit of sneaking out of the fire kingdom, they returned to the fire kingdom much more stealthily than before, fire shield in tow. Fionna runs her fingers down her now blue arm. Why hadn't Flame Prince just simply cast this on her so he wouldn't burn her?

Shaking her head, she puts it to the back of her mind as she paces again.

"Okay, so what's the plan again baby?"

Fionna glances towards her sister and pulls off her back pack. Pulling out her note pad, she crosses her legs and reads through the hastily scribbled handwriting.

"First things first, get flame shield."

"Done." the little fire kitten curls down into Cakes lap.

"Enter the fire kingdom without being caught."

"Done."

"Sneak into the castle, and break the prince free."

"Not done, Fionna this place is teeming with all those freaky guards."

"I know," she groans, pulling on her bangs, "Flamba, do you know any secret passages?"

The kitten looks up, "There's a door around the back that leads to the throne, but I don't know the password for it."

"Or," Cake says, "Or, I could just stretch us up through the window after seeing if it's clear."

Fionna glances up at the crooked opening, "Okay, but first check if Flame Prince is in there, I think he'll be back in the lamp."

Fionna knows he'll be back in the lamp, it's a certainty, FP said it himself. And Fionna has been beating herself up over the decision to bring him back ever since. Sure, they healed him, but there may have been other ways to heal him, other ways that didn't end up with him being back in that stupid lamp. Fionna has never seen such a barbaric, insane thing in her entire life. You have a destructive force willing to learn, so what do you do with it? Lock it up and let the anger build up and up until he breaks free. They should be thankful that FP is like he is, not evil, but caring. Sure he's hot tempered, but has he burnt down any villages so far? Nope. Killed anybody? Nope. So why won't anybody give him a chance?! She glowers as Cake wraps her arm around her waist and lifts her up just enough to peek through the window, and she swallows the gasp that rises in her chest.

Flame Prince.

There he is.

In his lamp.

Her stomach rolls, her mouth dries.

And he looks so... Defeated. Kneeling, he's staring at the floor, eyes open but not seeing, breathing but not living, there, but not. And her chest hurts and her stomach twinges with guilt. She's done this to him, locked him back up. And now he looks... Gone. Likes he's given up.

Why is he like that? What happened?

Cake stretches up beside her, flattening down Fionnas bunny hat ears with her new stretched paws, "Woah." Cake murmurs and Fionna nods.

"I know."

"He looks so... Sad."

Fionna cringes but nods, "I'm thinking, you stretch me up to his lamp, I reach in and lull him out and then you stretch us back out and we run."

"Not gonna work," Flamba says, and Fionna watches as the kitten perches on the window.

"How come?"

"There's a spell on the lamp, why's do you guys think he hasn't flown out yet?"

Fionna groans, "There always has to be some globbing spell."

Flamba points to a crank next to the throne the Fire Queen is currently perched on, "Only way to gets him outs is to pull that lever thing over there."

Fionna blinks, "Cake, could you super-duper stretch your arm and pull it?"

Cake cocks her head to the side, "Yeah dude, but what happens then?"

Fionna narrows her eyes, "I'm going to flip through the window, fight my way over to the lamp and grab FP, before acrobat racing our way out the window and jumping out, you know, like a swan dive."

Cake nods.

"And then hopefully FP will fly us, or we plummet to our deaths," Fionna punctuates this by looking behind her, deep into the cavern below where lava runs seamlessly into black rock.

"Okay, and I just hop onto your hat?"

Fionna grins, "Yup, but make sure you hold on, we don't want a repeat of last time."

Cake rolls her eyes, "I get distracted for five seconds and suddenly your five feet ahead, not my fault."

Fionna snickers and Cake scowls.

"So when we gonna do this?"

Fionna scans the room, the guards posted at the very end bordering the main entrance, the dwindling crowd that seem to be hanging around perpetually in the stands, and finally FP and the Queen. She looks bored as she watches her subjects, and the prince looks emotionless.

"Flamba, could you distract FQ?"

Flamba shakes her head, "Sorry guys, but I'll get in a lot of trouble as it is, you're on your own." the little fire kitten jumps down into the castle, sauntering off and Cake shakes her fist at the kitty.

"Glob darn it, that's the last time I help her out."

Fionna purses her lips, "Maybe if I just throw a rock?"

Cake twitches one of her ears, "Have to be a pretty big ro-"

A boulder, the size of Cake flies past her head and crashes to the ground meters away from the throne, the opposite direction to the lamp.

"Now Cake!"

The queen bolts to her feet and charges over to the rock, and Cake lunges into the castle as the guards join the queen, the fire people gossiping about the rock as Cake stretches her way over to the lever. She pulls it hard, grimacing as it sticks but with another pull, it creaks and begins to change position, before slamming down on the other side.

Fionna flips through the window, sword in hand as she charges straight towards the lamp, lunging over the furniture blocking her path, her eyes trained on the lowering lamp.

The lamp touches down, and the invisible glass door swings open, revealing a shell shocked prince. He doesn't have a chance to say anything as Fionna clasps his forearm, dragging him out.

Cake stretches to Fionna and curls up in her hat.

"Fionna..." the prince says the words almost as if he didn't believe them, and Fionna raises an eyebrow at him before doubling her efforts, thankful when he catches the hint to run. The queen finally notices, as do the guards, and Fionna can hear the shouts of outrage behind her as they race to the window.

"Where are we going?"

Fionna pumps her legs and skids to a stop just an inch from the crooked window. She turns to the prince, ignoring the mass of guards now streaking towards them, "We're escaping."

With that, she wraps her arms around his waist, and using all of her body weight, jumps them both out of the window. The prince yelps, but Fionna buries her head in his chest, hoping he'll do the right thing. The air is rushing by them and it blocks out all sounds it's that powerful. Panic flutters in her heart as they still tumble to the earth, and she begins to doubt her plan, maybe she should've explained to the prince what she planned to-

The abrupt jump has her screaming as they change from rapid falling to flying, and she blearily opens her eyes as they begin to stream across the sky, the prince rolling onto his back so she isn't hanging on to his frame by just her hands. His head is craned back, his legs curled to prop her up on his body and she sighs in relief, burying her head yet again in his chest, the cloth, instead of burning her, feels smooth on her cheek and overall he just feels... Warm. Normal. Like her. This shield is amazing. Eventually the constant warmth turns to a normal temperature around her, and she blinks her eyes open to see lush green grass passing like a blur beneath them, and within seconds FP begins to heat up. No longer a comforting warmth, now it's hot, incredibly hot, in fact, it's starting to burn, and she glances with panicked movements as the shield begins to disappear.

"FP!"

The prince glances down his body, and his face knits in worry as he takes her in before he dips suddenly, and despite his burning temperature, Fionna grips tight. Wrapping her legs around his hips as the air suddenly whooshes past them, cooling her down slightly.

The landing is hard. They slam into the ground with a grunt, FP taking most of the impact because he shifted his body just in time, and Fionna scrambles away from him as the burning turns into an inferno, rolling across the grass with a yelp as flames burst into life on her clothing. She pats them frantically. Oh great. She finally helps FP, and now she's going to burn to death.

Thankfully, she catches them in time and slumps to the ground on her back in exhaustion; her break isn't for long though as Flame Prince rushes to her side, his burning eyes searching hers as he kneels over her. Seeing no injuries, only singed clothing, he begins to mutter something and fire symbols appear in the air. Through her fogged brain, Fionna realises he's casting the flame shield. She sits up, leaning on her elbows as the words blur into one as he tries to get them out.

A wave of icy cold water and the blue consumes her. Much more powerful than before, she's almost freezing cold, and she glances up at Flame Prince as shivers begin to wrack her body.

What she sees stops everything. Stops her heart, starts it up again, stops her breathing, and stops her thinking. Everything just comes to a stuttering standstill as Flame Prince captures her face in his hands, his eyes open, honest, in awe. Emotions pass through them, a looking glass into his soul and she's sure hers reflect his own. He looks so open, vulnerable, as his eyes flicker over her face and she drinks in his features, heart in her mouth.

Without any other action, without any warning at all, he leans in and presses his warm lips against her cold ones.

Lava boils in her veins, not because of his heat, no, but because of the kiss. Everything spurs into life and she's clutching herself to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and wrapping her fingers in his surprisingly silky hair, like water, almost. She can't get close enough as his lips nip at her own, pulling her in even deeper as he presses into her harder, crushing her to him in an all-consuming embrace. She can't think, all she can do is feel. Fire ignites in her chest, in her limbs as he traces her bottom lip with his tongue, and Fionna can only do what feels natural and open her mouth wider, desperate to feel more of him.

"Ahem!"

Fionna bolts away from the prince, panting, cheeks flushed with heat and arms aching from holding him so tight. He looks the same, panting, his cheeks flushed, his lips swollen. She blushes even further when Cake stretches into her normal self, situating herself between the two.

"What is going on here?!"

Fionna begins to stammer out a response in order to appease her sister, her face burning as Cake eyes her angrily. Flame Prince is grinning too, and she rubs a hand down her face in embarrassment.

It's then that she notices the blue shield is beginning to ware off, her skin appearing beneath the hue as it trickles its way off of her body, and she looks up at Flame Prince in confusion.

"How come the shields keep waring off?"

He chews his bottom lips.

"I mean, the one I had from Flamba earlier lasted the entire time I was in the fire kingdom, but as soon as you flew us out, it started to ware off, and this one felt much more powerful and it's gone even quicker?"

"It's the heat."

Fionna blinks, as does Cake, momentarily forgetting her earlier anger.

"The shield has to have a fuel that keeps it going, you know, like you and I need oxygen."

Fionna nods, enraptured as she watches his lips form the words, lips that only moments ago were pressed against hers. She shivers in delight.

"And the fuel is heat, it must constantly be warm for it to work, as soon as the temperature goes down, it begins to fade away. It only really works in the fire kingdom."

Now Fionna understands why he never casted it before, "Isn't there some kind of... I don't know, shield that lasts outside of the kingdom?"

The prince shakes his head, "I don't think so..." he pauses, "Well, I think there is something, although it would be more for me than anyone else."

Fionna crosses her legs, aware of the darkening sky but not willing to interrupt him.

"In our kingdom, there's a tale of a cave that has a book, guarded by a water beast."

Fionna's eyes light up, "That sounds awesome; we can so go and explore it, kick some water beast butt and get this book."

Flame Prince smiles, humouring her, "Well, you would be able to, but I'm kinda made of fire."

"So?"

Cake and FP share a look, and Fionna frowns.

"Honey, water and fire don't mix."

Fionna slaps her forehead, "Duh. Right, new plan, me and Cake go in first, kill this monster, then you go in, grab this book and... What does this book actually do?"

"It's like, a guide book but for fire elementals. The last person to have it went crazy with power."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Fionna blinks, "Would that happen to you?"

Flame Prince shrugs, leaning back, "It could do, it was almost hereditary until they finally got rid of it, the princes before me all used to inherit it from their parents, and some of them went on to be the greatest rulers of our kind, and others went completely crazy."

"So you could become a great ruler?"

He nods, "Or a maniac."

Fionna shifts, blinking as she leans forwards, "Then it's up to you, do you want to go get this book?"

Flame Prince shifts too, much more gracefully as he kneels. His expression flattens, his eyes burning with silence as Fionna waits, and for a few seconds she thinks he's going to just get up and leave, forget everything. But then he grins, a playful grin, his hair lighting up as he leans forwards and pecks her quickly on the lips, enough for her to feel the tiny sting that accompanies the bolt of fire that surges through her frame, a fire that wants more.

"Yeah, I do."

"Then Cake," she turns towards her sister, cheeks burning, "It's adventure time."


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys, so I kinda got carried away with this chapter so it's kinda long, and it doesn't really have much going on in terms of action. I hope you like it anyway, and I love your reviews so far! They're all so nice and amazing! Hope you enjoy! :) (May be some errors, I tried my best in altering them but sometimes my brain doesn't recognize when things don't make sense, word order wise so apologies) :)**

7:

"Have you ever tried having a sandwich with like, no meat? Just bread and sauce and junk?"

Fionna glances over to her sister, "No dude, the whole point of a sandwich is the meat."

"I'm just saying; I'm having some sort of epiphany over here." Cake punctuates this by chomping loudly on the bread and sauce sandwich, orange sauce slipping over the edge and slopping down onto the plate. FP watches in fascinated disgust as the orange sauce keeps coming, and Fionna chuckles at his expression. Cooped up in the tree house, it's pretty crowded for once, especially with the need for secrecy now they've busted FP out. Thankfully Gumball hasn't made any surprise visits, which in itself is more suspicious than anything. The dude is always round, usually to show off his new recipes, as Fionna is known for her love of candy but lately they haven't seen a whisper of him. Cake, finally noticing Flame Princes disgusted expression, scowls and flicks her sandwich his way with an exaggerated twirl on her seat, splattering Flame Prince who flinches with a yelp, the sauce sizzling on his skin. With a scowl, he grabs a cloth, setting it alight much to Cakes distaste and wipes his arm.

"Okay, I've thought it over and there are two people who've been here for a thousand years, so they must know the place more than we do and will know where this book is."

The two turn towards Fionna, and she leans forwards.

"Marshall Lee and Ice Queen."

"Easily Marshall Lee," Cake says, wiping her mouth with the back of her paw, "Ice Queen is all kinds of crazy."

"That's if Marshall Lee helps us, I kinda do owe him, like, a lot."

Cake nods, "Just go strawberry picking, boy loves him some strawberries."

Fionna stands as does Cake, "BMO,"

The little robot looks up.

"We're gonna need three baskets."

...

"This one is extra squishy."

"Cake, that's too squishy, is that even a strawberry anymore?"

The two stare down at the mush in Cakes paw, but Fionna is distracted by the sizzling in her left ear. Blinking, she glances around the strawberry farm to see Strawberry Prince batting wildly at the flames consuming a small bush of strawberries as Flame Prince backs away apologetically, an uneasy grimace crossing his face as the prince squeals.

Fionna jumps over the strawberry brushes and rushes over to the flames, patting them down with her foot as she apologises to the prince. Flame Prince grimaces, but nods next to Fionna and the prince glares at them before tending to his shrivelled crops.

"I'm so sorry." Flame Prince murmurs and Fionna shrugs his apology away, urging him away from the annoyed Prince.

"It's cool, Strawberry Prince is cool like that." she hopes, anyway. The Prince watches her with apologetic eyes as they move further and further away from the main crops to the thinning crops, further away from the rest of them.

"I just can't seem to pick them without setting them on fire." mutters the prince, toting his specially made basket - which they had to get from the forest that doesn't burn, not an easy feat considering a huge wooden witch decided they'd stolen enough of her magical wood - in the crook of his elbow.

Fionna watches as his fingers graze a strawberry only for it to burst into flames, and they both flinch as the fire dies out.

"Maybe you need to try something else," Fionna says, crouching next to the bush and Flame Prince follows, "Instead of just grabbing them, calm down, breathe in and out, you know, like yoga."

The prince nods, inhaling deeply and Fionna smiles at him. His hair flickers in the sunlight, flames licking at the air and he looks healthy, a lot healthier than before. Even after the fiasco at her tree house, putting him in the fire and what not, he still never seemed fully healed like he was still suffering despite the brave face he put on. But after being healed in his home kingdom, he looks vibrant, full of vitality.

He reaches out with steady fingers and with bated breath the pair watch as his fingers graze the closest strawberry, his flames dulling considerably whilst still maintaining his ethereal glow.

He picks it, plucking it off the plant.

And smiles.

Fionna gasps to herself, watching the way his face lights up. The prince glances towards her, still smiling.

The strawberry bursts into flames and Fionna jumps back.

"Glob damn it!" FP hisses, and groans as the ashes fall from his fingers.

"Hey," Fionna says, pushing herself back up, "Don't worry about it, see, you had it. You just need to put it in the basket before you set it on fire."

The prince nods, a frown still gracing his features and Fionna giggles. Actually giggles before scowling at herself. She doesn't giggle. Since when does she giggle? She laughs, but she doesn't giggle. What the glob is going on with her?

Flame Prince smiles and Fionna realises he's put a strawberry, completely unharmed, in his basket. She grins too.

The sun disappears, shadow consumes them both and Fionna goes to stand, hand in her back pack ready to grab her sword when she is flattened to the ground by a huge mound of fur. The same happens to Flame Prince, who has to breathe slowly and Fionna watches as his flames begin to die down in order to not burn their intruder. The fur feels familiar though, and Fionna pinches the darkened white fur with her fingers, being awarded with an all too familiar hiss.

"Cake! What the junk?"

Cake's face appears in front of her, "Fionna, PG up ahead, we need to hide your boy. This is all I could think of." she cringes and Fionna glances down at the now blackening fur near Flame Prince. He raises his eyebrows apologetically, trying to push himself into the ground further away from Cakes body. Cakes face disappears, reappearing moments later.

"Okay, he's gone."

Cake stretches into her normal self and Fionna and Flame Prince stumble up. Fionna brushes away the dirt from her skirt as does Cake, who mews at her burnt patch of fur.

"Sorry," the prince murmurs, and Cake waves the apology away.

"Guys, we really need to get our hurry on."

Fionna lifts up her basket, "I've got enough here."

Flame Prince glances down into his basket, and Fionna stifles a laugh at the sole strawberry lying against the bottom. Thankfully, Cake's basket is full to the brim, and deciding that this is more than enough to appease the grumpy vampire; they set off towards his cave. The sun shines down on them, caressing Fionna's skin with a dull warmth that she absolutely cherishes. Summer is her favourite time of the year, and the heat is amazing. So much adventuring can be done in the summer, so much daylight that lights up the skies. Even the nights are warm, hardly any breeze that bites at her skin. Twirling lightly in the grass as they walk, Fionna grins as she notices the black footprints left behind by the flaming prince.

"Have you ever tried strawberries, FP?"

The prince glances up, bemused, "Uh, I don't think I have."

Smiling, Fionna pulls one out of her basket, shimmying up to the prince until she can feel his heat bathing her arm.

"They're amazing, you should try one."

Raising an eyebrow, the prince nods and opens his mouth. Fionna blushes and FP forces them both to a stop by stopping himself. She certainly didn't expect him to expect her to feed it to him. She raises it to his lips, blushing even more so as a different kind of heat rushes through her frame as he bites into the fruit. With a smirk, much too alike the grumpy vampires, he chews thoughtfully, swallowing loudly.

"You're right, they are amazing."

"Okay, okay! Break it up you two, jeez I feel like I'm in a novel."

Cake materialises between the two and stretching to godly heights, pulls Fionna up onto her back with a scowl aimed at the prince. Fionna sighs as Cake scowls at her.

"Fionna, get yourself in check girl, I can see you checking out the boy a mile away."

Fionna blushes, "Shushers Cake."

Hearing the whoosh of air, Fionna blushes even further as Flame Prince comes into view, held up with the constant stream of flames emanating from his lower half. He grins and pulls a face at the cat when she isn't looking, and Fionna snorts in an entirely ungirly way. Cake turns her face, eyeing them both suspiciously before turning away from them again, "Teenagers," she huffs, and Fionna laughs.

The cave comes into view as they crest the next hill, and Fionna braces herself on Cakes back as the cat launches ahead, covering the short distance in a matter of seconds, shrinking down to her original size and flicking Fionna up who flips in the air with a laugh, landing with a roll, thankfully not dropping any of her strawberries. Eat your heart out, physics.

The extinguishing sound followed by the skidding of Flame Prince, and the trio assemble at the mouth of the cave.

Fionna skips over to the house, well, races as fast as she can whilst jumping over obstacles her way over to the house, high fiving Cake as they reach the door. Fionna knocks loudly, grimacing at the sound as she realises that, all of his light are turned off, which probably means the guy is sleeping.

This, she can tell, is not going to go well.

The door squeaks open and Fionna puts on her best smile, as does Cake, presenting the strawberries as the pale vampire blinks hazily, his head appearing from behind the door.

"What?"

"We brought gifts."

He scowls, "Why?"

Fionna shrugs, "Just because you're such an awesome person and junk."

Marshall blinks, nodding, "True, but seriously, you guys are wrecking my sleeping schedule, and I know I don't need beauty sleep, but come on."

Fionna rolls her eyes, walking into the vampire's house, "Don't be a wad, Marshall."

The vampire grumbles, opening the door for Cake. He blinks in surprise when Flame Prince walks in, lighting up the dark home.

"Woah, look who's up and walking."

Flame Prince nods, "And it seems I have you to thank."

The two size each other up, and Fionna has to physically refrain herself from rolling her eyes as they nod in mutual respect.

"Don't mention it dude, just don't go telling anybody, you know."

Flame Prince raises an eyebrow, "Like I'm going to go tell everybody I got my butt handed to me by the candy prince."

Marshall grins and Fionna shakes her head as the two begin to gossip like little girls over the pink prince. Quickly becoming bored of their childish behaviour, Fionna loudly slams the strawberries down on his kitchen table, flicking the light on.

"Marshall, we brought you strawberries."

Cake places her basket down too, except much more lightly as she eyes Fionna. She opens the fridge, pulling out a glass of milk and Fionna rolls her eyes as Cake grins, sipping her milk.

Sitting down on one of the stools, she rests her chin on her hand, waiting for the two guys to come in. Her eyes droop as she waits, her bones suddenly feeling much heavier than before and Fionna realises how long it's been since she's last eaten. When you're occupied all day it's easy to forget about eating, but now her stomach growls in annoyance and she plucks one of the juicy strawberries from the basket. They're heavenly, of course, and Fionna licks her lips as she devours a second one. All day they've spent picking these strawberries under the sun, and whilst it's not exactly the most exciting endeavour available in the land of Aaa, sometimes all an adventurer needs is a basket and a strawberry bush. It's relaxing, even, compared to her usual days, and Fionna finds that she likes things like this, relaxing. It helps that she spent it with FP too, and she blushes yet again as she remembers him eating one of the strawberries. He certainly has a way of making her feel flustered.

They appear seconds later, both laughing over something unknown and Fionna looks on incredulously. Only a few days ago they hated each other, and now they're like best bros.

Marshall glances over to the basket of strawberries and his eyes light up; floating over to them he picks one and greedily sucks the red out of it, leaving a grey husk behind.

"So, what else did you come here for?"

The pair glance at each other, Cakes eyes widening as she sips her milk and nods, her way of backing her up.

Fionna sighs, and with a mental brace, she begins to tell him about the book. The book that will help FP or in the end send him crazy. A book that was hidden long ago due to the powers it wreaked. The book itself isn't evil, no; it's filled with knowledge, with powers and spells that the fire people can learn, well, the royals anyway. Flame Prince explained it in a much simpler way, but he doesn't interrupt her as she tells Marshall Lee. The book only caters to those powerful enough to wield it, which was usually the royals, the odd subject, maybe.

Marshall Lee listens, surprisingly without interrupting as he feasts on the strawberries.

"So, what you're basically saying is that you need my expertise in finding this freaky book?"

Fionna nods, rolling her eyes.

"My awesome brain, to locate this totem of knowledge, my fantastic memories and logic to find its position, my incredible mental prowess to seize this book-"

"Okay we get it!" Fionna sighs, and Marshall grins.

"I'm not sure you do."

Cake presses a stretched paw against the vampires arm, "Pale face, we really do."

Marshall shrugs, "I don't know, what do I get in return?"

Fionna bites her lip, "Uh, more strawberries."

Marshall narrows his eyes, "You drive a hard bargain, human."

Flame Prince interjects then, raising his eyebrows at the vampire, "I think I have something you might want."

Marshall leans back, "Go ahead, fancy boy, amuse me."

FP glances towards Fionna and she stifles a giggle at his expression.

"I know a spell, or a curse, depending on which way you take it, that allows the undead to roam in the sunlight unharmed for a few hours."

Something shifts in Marshalls face that Fionna has never seen him express before, and he leans forwards, pressing his hands against the table, "You have my attention."

Flame Prince creates a cup with his hands, muttering words beneath his breath and Fionna watches in amazement as a small figure of fire begins to emerge, a ballerina, almost, swirling and dancing in his hands with what appears to be a sunset surrounding her. Fionna gasps, leaning in as the ballerina becomes more energetic and the sunset begins to rise, the small figure dancing faster and faster, spinning and twirling as the sun rises and rises. Without blinking, FP blows and the figurine expands into a life size model, the heat unreal as she begins to twirl around the kitchen, leaving wisps of fire behind her that dissipate after a few magical seconds. She spins around them, close, but not touching until she passes Marshall. Without warning she spears through him, disappearing in a flourish of orange sparks inside of him that rain down onto the kitchen floor.

Marshall gasps, clutching his chest. Fionna blinks in awe. Completely enraptured by the vampire as some colour returns to his skin, not much, but it's certainly less pale.

FP swallows, breathing in deeply, "The spell works in a way like a timer. As sunlight hits your skin, the timer starts, when you are in the shadows, the timer stops. It recharges over night, but it will only last for a few hours."

Silence, pure silence. Fionna knits her eyebrows as they all stare at the vampire who is staring down at himself, mouth open, like he can't believe it. His hand pulls at his grey shirt, almost as if he's trying to pull it off and see his chest. He's panting as he looks up at the trio, eyes wide.

"Marshall..."

He swallows, patting his chest, his arms, before meeting all of their eyes, lastly FP's, "Thank you," he chokes out, coughing, "I mean, thanks, that's really..."

Flame Prince shrugs, waving the thanks away, "You saved my life, I owed you one."

Fionna had no idea he was that powerful, and neither did Cake by the looks of it. Her jaw is practically on the floor.

"So Marshall, will you help us?"

The vampire turns towards her, "I sure as hell will, and I know exactly where to start."

...

It's weird, being in the sunlight with Marshall. He keeps prodding his arm, his cheek, his hair, checking to see if it's still intact and Fionna is checking too, glancing his way every few seconds. She can't believe it, and she finds herself staring at the fiery prince as well. He looks completely calm, unbothered by the fact he's just performed a spell that allowed a vampire who's hidden away for a thousand years from the sun, into the sun. Even if it is for just a few hours, it's amazing. Unfathomable. And he seems completely unperturbed. She sidles up to the prince with a blank expression, still trying to assimilate what the hell he did.

"That was… How did you do that?"

Flame Prince glances down at her, and Fionna suddenly feels small in comparison. His sudden show of power is now undeniable, even in Marshall's eyes, and for the first time Fionna is finally seeing him as an authoritative figure despite his youth.

"When I was in the lamp I read a lot, there was nothing else to do, so I picked up a few little things."

Little things… Her mind processes his words, momentarily blocking out the world.

Fionna frowns however, when they come to the edge of the ice kingdom.

"Marshall, uh, what are we doing here?"

"Ice Queen knows her stuff."

"Marshall boy, the reason we came to you was to avoid the crazy lady."

Marshall rubs a hand through his hair, floating inches above the glistening snow, "Yeah, uh, well she has a load of junk in her basement."

Cake and Fionna guffaw, and Flame Prince, merely raises an eyebrow in innocent confusion.

Marshall rolls his eyes, "Very mature."

"You're such a butt Marshall, but seriously, isn't there anywhere else we can go?"

Marshall grimaces, "Sorry bro, this is the first place I can think of."

"What about FP?"

They all turn to the prince, who looks down at himself before igniting his flames with a burst of energy, hovering in the air, "I can fly over it?"

Marshall grins, "See, it's all good Fionna, we'll be in and out before she even knows it."

...

"What were you saying about being in and out?"

Marshall grins uneasily, hands wrapped around the ice bars. Fionna glares at the vampire, wrapping her own hands around the bars. Ice Queen cackles, leaning back in the air as she circles Flame Prince, held captive by ice. Surprisingly, the ice doesn't melt, nor harm him and Fionna thinks it could possibly be due to Ice Queens scheming. The cougar has been around for a thousand years, she must've come in contact with the fire elementals at some point, and evidently ice predatored her way into a new spell. She probably tried stealing previous royal princes over the years.

She coos into FP's face, stroking his cheek. His fire doesn't hurt her and her ice doesn't hurt him, and Fionna has to quell the jealous surge that bursts through her abruptly. She is never, and never will be, jealous of Ice Queen.

Flame Prince grimaces uneasily as she strokes a hand through his hair, "My, my, aren't you a delight."

"Ice Queen leave him alone before I kick your butt."

The queen turns on her, pointing a manicured finger in her direction, "Shush, you, I'm tired of you taking all the babes to yourself, this one's mine!"

"But he's made of fire?!" Cake interjects, pressing her face against the bars.

"So? I know a few tricks." she glances meaningfully at the prince, "I can rock your world, fire boy."

Marshall Lee retches.

Gunter chooses to come in then, wearing one of Ice Queen's long blue dresses.

"Wenk."

"Gunter!" Ice Queen hisses, marching over to the penguin, "What have I told you about playing dress up in mummy's clothes!"

Glaring back at them, Ice Queen points a finger, "Don't move, I have some totally awesome dance moves to show you, lover boy."

Flame Prince adopts a frightened expression, his mouth dropping in distaste as the Ice Queen disappears through the arching ice doorway and Fionna immediately gets to work. Pulling out her sword that Ice Queen always seems to forget she carries, she hacks away at the bars and it only takes a few seconds for them to smash into smithereens.

"Awesome," Fionna mutters, clambering out of the ice prison and making her way over to the prince.

"Dude, she totally wants you." Marshall says, floating towards them and Flame Prince scowls from his icy prison, his shoulders and head being the only things not encased in the ice. His flames still burn, however, and Fionna has to shake herself into action. It's just so darn confusing. Ice, fire. The two should put each other out!

She raises her sword, gritting her teeth and pulls down.

FP's yelp stops her, and she stumbles from the momentum of the swing.

"Fionna what are you doing?!"

"Breaking you free!"

FP shakes his head, "By waving a sword around?"

She glances down at the red sword, glistening in the light, "Well, yeah."

Shaking his head, he grits his teeth and suddenly the room becomes a lot hotter, almost as hot as the edge of the fire kingdom, in fact, and Fionna watches in fascination as the ice surrounding him begins to melt, outside in. Within seconds the ice is gone, steam rising steadily in the room and Fionna pulls on the collar of her top, feeling too warm. Strange, considering they are surrounded by ice.

Marshall Lee frowns, "Wait, if you could do that, why didn't you do it like, twenty minutes ago when she first locked us up?"

Flame Prince cocks his head to the side, "Because she would've just froze me again, I needed to wait for her to leave."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Fionna kicks the ground, "So, are we... I don't know, going to leave now or..."

The two boys nod and Cake stretches Fionna out of the window, grumbling on her way down.

"I swear, sometimes Marshall I think your brain is made of poop."

Marshall rolls his eyes at the cat, "My brain is made of awesome and beauty, kitty."

"Marshall," Fionna says, jumping off of Cake and onto the grass, "Do you have any other ideas?"

The vampire presses a finger against his lips, leaning back in the air, kicking his feet up on imaginary furniture. Flame Prince sits down on the grass and Fionna follows suit, scooting closer to him with a smile.

"There's this wizard that owes me a favour, but it's a few days walk away."

Fionna nods, "Then that's where we have to go, are you definitely sure?"

Marshall nods, "He's a bit crazy, but he knows his stuff."

"Hold up!" Cake interjects, "Before we just go running into this fiasco of a plan, I want details, and food, because it's lunch time and I get cranky without my food."

Fionna purses her lips, "You have a point. I'm starved, wanna go to the market?"

Marshall hovers in front of them, a scowl on his face, "In case you guys haven't noticed, my main man over here is currently on the run from the Feds."

"Feds?" Fionna and Cake look blankly at each other.

"You know," Marshall runs a hand down his face, "The authority, we can't just go marching into the market; they'll have his butt incarcerated for sure."

FP nods, standing up and joining Marshall, folding his arms, "He's right, for once."

"Hey! I'm fighting your case." Marshall scowls, "But seriously, we can't."

"Okay, how about me and Fionna just get our market on then?"

The two boys glance at each other, "Okay," Marshall says, "We'll meet you back at my cave."

"Think of a plan guys." Cake adds on.

Fionna nods, eyebrows raised as the two begin to negotiate quietly before Flame Prince looks up, "And Marshall said bring pizza."

Marshall glares at the prince, "Idiot, you're supposed to say you wanted it."

FP scowls, "Whatever, I don't even know what it is."

"How do you not know what pizza is?!"

Fionna feels a paw tugging at her arm, and she glances down at Cake who rolls her eyes, "Come on baby, we best get going if we want to get all the good stuff before it goes."

Cake stretches up, clutching Fionna to her chest before spinning her onto her back, and begins the hearty trek to the market. It's not far from the tree house, but the ice kingdom is not the tree house, and the journey is significantly longer. Fionna kicks back, lying down on Cake's plush fur, feeling lethargic.

"Jeez Cake, I could so go for a nap right now." the sun beats down on them, and the soft movements of Cake begin to lull Fionna into tiredness. Cake chuckles, bringing her back to the present.

"I know baby, I feel the same, and some warm milk as well."

Fionna wrinkles her nose, "Nah, warm milk doesn't do it for me."

"Warm cocoa?"

Fionna chuckles, "Definitely."

Feeling entirely too comfy, Fionna grabs a chunk of Cake's fur, and using her natural stretching abilities, pulls it into a makeshift blanket, "Cake, I'm just going to rest my eyes for ten minutes, okay."

She hears a harrumph, but ignores it as the world of sleep welcomes her. No dreams come to mind, and before long she's being awoken by Cake's insistent paws.

"No Cake, I'm too tired."

"Sweety if you don't get your butt up in two seconds I'ma throw you into the pond of swamps."

Fionna bats at the paws and sits up, immediately much more awake than before. Cake doesn't just make threats for no reason. The sounds of the market greets her ears, a bustle of activity and the smell of cooking meat caresses her nose. The market is always full of activity, everybody comes here at least once a week whether it's for groceries or clothing, and Fionna jumps down from Cakes back, pulling her back pack up before heading straight towards the cooking hotdogs in a blue stand a few feet away. The smell is delicious, and she orders one with a grin. No onions, no nothing, just the bun and the hotdog. Fionna bites into it with a moan, "I didn't realise how hungry I was Cake."

Cake hums, "I can see that."

"So where do you want to go first?"

"I was thinking we get some sandwich ingredients for the long trip and some magic bottles, you know, the kind that keeps your water cold forever."

Fionna nods, heading towards that very stall, "Okay, we need to buy four, though."

"Why four?!" Cake huffs, paying for the sparkling blue bottles.

"For those guys."

Cake rolls her eyes, "One is made of fire, and one is a vampire, they're hardly going to need water."

Fionna shifts uncomfortably, "I don't know what FP drinks though."

"Really hot drinks?"

Fionna shrugs, "I don't know, maybe he doesn't drink."

Cake buys a bunch of ingredients from the next store, "Oh no, I'm sure he does, I know he eats, all boys eat. It's like second nature."

Fionna chuckles, "Well, duh. But seriously, I don't know whether to get him coal or what?"

Cake guffaws, nearly dropping the many sachets of food, "Oh sweet glob, I think he eats normal food, baby."

Fionna pushes her sister, "How do we know though? I mean, Marshall only eats red things."

Shaking her head, she sighs. There's just so many intricacies when it comes to FP, so many things to consider. Cake follows her as they delve deeper into the market, passing the happy stalls with smiling owners. The abrupt shift from good to evil has Fionna doing a double take. The previously sandy floor is now pitch black, like it has been burnt to a soft crisp. The stalls seem to ooze eeriness, each stall being private and hidden from the rest of the world, the tents only offering a small crease as a door that doesn't infuse a sense of hope in Fionna. She steps back uneasily, but Cake grasps her skirt.

"Hold up baby, look over there."

She follows her pointing paw and blinks in surprise. A fire stall!

Flame Prince is made of fire! – Way to state the obvious.

"We could go check it out." Fionna says, walking ahead, forgetting the stalls that previously sent a shiver down her back. The fire stall is a black tent with a spark of fire billowing out of the top. Veins of lava run through the fabric, and as Fionna nears it she pulls at her collar, the heat already getting to her.

The lip in the tent opens, revealing to her surprise a figure who isn't of the fire element species. Flames burst out of the lip and Fionna jumps back. The figure looks like a woman, with black scraggly hair flowing down her back. She stands straight and is covered head to toe in a black cloak, the hood down revealing a scarred face. Eyes that look like discs and fangs that drop down to her chin, she looks scary, to say the least.

"Welcome, child, what can I do for you?" her 'r's roll, her accent thick and she can only just understand her.

Fionna blinks when she realises she's waiting for a reply, wringing her hands, "Uh, I think we made a mistake, I thought you were a fire elemental."

With a twirl of her cloak that billows out towards them, Fionna feels the world tilt and everything blurs into nonexistence. In under a second she's firmly seated in the tent, Cake beside her and the flames swirling around the edges, covering the walls in a beautiful dance of magic. The flames are the walls, Fionna realises, and she also realises just how beautiful the flames are.

The tent is small inside, and a small table separates her and the creepy lady who sits pleasantly opposite them. Dream catchers hang from the roof of the flames, on fire themselves except they are different colours, pinks, blues, and purples. Every colour is there, and it's mesmerising.

The lady snaps her fingers, and the two glance up at her in surprise, "I may not be a fire elemental, but I know everything about their kind."

"Oh," Fionna says, chagrined, "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend."

The lady waves away the apology, "You know the prince."

They jerk in surprise, and Cake tugs on Fionna's arm but she ignores it, "No I don't?"

The lady grins, revealing even more fangs, "I know everything about them, remember, I can smell him on you."

Fionna takes a whiff of her clothes, only smelling her usual vanilla smell, "I can't smell anything."

"You want to know more about their kind, too, right?"

Fionna nods despite herself.

"Fionna." Cake says warily.

"I have many spells, many books, for a simple price you may purchase one."

Fionna presses a finger to her lips, "Do you have a book explaining the basics about them?"

The woman snaps her fingers and in a whirl of flames a book appears in her hands, "This book right here is all 'bout their crazy biology little girl."

"I'll take it."

The woman hands over the book without another word, the black leather binding feeling oddly cold in Fionna's hands. The woman doesn't ask for anything, and instead a small satchel appears in her hands with a puff of smoke.

"Thank you for your services."

The tent poofs out of existence and Fionna flips as the chair disappears, landing on her feet. Cake's reflexes aren't that fast, and she falls to the ground with a humph.

"Damn she could've warned us." Cake mutters, standing and they both survey the empty patch of land previously occupied by the tent. The ground is burnt, the only evidence that the tent in fact existed.

"Well, at least we have the book."

"Yeah but I'd check your bag Fionna, she didn't get that coin purse from thin air."

Fionna grimaces, pulling off her back pack and rifling through it, "It seemed like she did."

The coin purse is nowhere to be seen, and Fionna curses, "That bag had enough for a weeks' worth of food!"

Cake shrugs, pulling Fionna away from the evil side of the market and back into the happy go lucky side, "We have a bunch of things at home we can sell, never mind."

Grumbling, Fionna clambers on to Cakes back as she stretches up, stepping over the now miniature tents with ease. The wind brushes her bangs back as the two head back to Marshall's cave.

"Oh Cake, we need to grab some pizza."

"Fionna we have no money." Cake mutters, and Fionna sighs.

"Okay, but if they ask we say they didn't have any."

...

"I ask - he asks for one thing, and you can't even get that right." Marshall huffs, hovering in the air. Wearing a black band t-shirt that Fionna's never heard about before complete with ripped jeans, he's somehow convinced Flame Prince to play his axe bass. And Fionna must admit, the way he's plucking the strings and the music coming out of it is entrancing, a hypnotic melody that swallows the house in rhythm.

"Sorry," Fionna groans, "They were all out, weren't they Cake?"

Cake eyes Fionna before muttering, "Yah."

With a smug grin, she faces Marshall who frowns, his fangs hanging petulantly on his lip, "Whatever, I and FP are jamming so if you don't mind."

Fionna scowls, "Guys you were supposed to be thinking of a plan!"

Flame Prince grins, somehow easing her irritation, "We did, and then we started... What's the word?"

"Jamming." Marshall quips.

"Yes, jamming."

Fionna rolls her eyes, "Okay, so what's the plan?"

"Walk up to the wizard, offer him so money cos the dudes crazy for the moolah, then ask him about the book." Marshall supplies, leaning back in the air.

The word book has her thinking of the insanely expensive one in her backpack, "What if he doesn't take the money? What if he's crazy, crazy?"

Marshall rolls his eyes now, "He's not that crazy."

"But-"

"And he will take the money, or else." Marshalls face morphs into something demonic and Fionna huffs in irritation.

"Okay. We should prepare our things, and set off tonight?"

Marshall nods, and Fionna stares at the flaming prince, his otherworldly glow heating her from across the room. How he's managed not to burn the red axe bass she'll never know, maybe he's starting to learn some self-control. He looks up from the bass, fingers still plucking the strings.

"Sounds good to me."

Marshall nods, "Yeah, we'll meet you at your place."

Pulling the strap up on her back pack, Fionna has to keep the scowl off her face. There's no way she could be jealous of the fact Marshall's keeping FP to himself. Nope. She's not jealous. No way.

So why does her chest ache with annoyance when they step into the cave?

It's the only thing she can think about as they make their way back to the tree house, her thoughts circulating around the fiery prince. Her face burns when she thinks about their kiss, her cheeks turning a deep red as she sighs happily. There's no way she can define their relationship. They're not boyfriend and girlfriend. But they're more than friends. It's weird, and it plays on her mind as she bathes and packs away a few days' worth of clothes and other utensils. Cake packs sandwiches, lots and lots of sandwiches and she's crushing them into her own bag as Fionna enters the main room. The night sky is cloudy tonight and Fionna stares out the window, hoping to see a streak of fire lance across it signalling their arrival.

It's strange, wanting to see someone considering they're a boy other than Gumball. For years she had a crush on that guy, and for years he sidestepped her little crush with ease, and now she can see why, but at the time it hurt. And now, she barely thinks about Gumball that way anymore. No, her new found interest is the guy on fire, the guy with the hot temper who is possibly one of the kindest guys on the planet without realising it. Who gave a vampire the ability to walk in sunlight without even thinking about it.

"Fionna."

Fionna turns at the sound of her name, glancing over to her sister. Standing in the centre of the room, the light highlighting the cream and beige patches of her fur, Cake holds her backpack with one strap on.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Fionna pauses before she speaks, walking over to Cake and sitting down on the floor in front of her. Cake follows suit, big eyes searching her sisters blue ones.

"Because once we go, there's no telling the kind of trouble we could be in, we don't know what we're walking into and Gumball is going to hunt us down with his little pink tootsies."

Fionna purses her lips, "I know Cake, and that's why I'm giving you the option to back out now, you know, so you don't get in trouble."

Cake shakes her head vehemently, "No way, I 'ain't leaving my sister to deal with this."

Fionna smiles, hugging Cake, "Thanks. And I know, I so know. Gumball is going to kick my butt but I can't let FP be locked up for the rest of his life for something he hasn't even done yet. If this is the only way I can help him, then so be it."

Cake raises a kitty brow, "And are you sure you're doing this for him, or for you?"

Fionna swallows, "At first, I thought I was doing it for me, you know. If he can control his powers and junk, then... l know this is cheesy but we could be together. But then I started thinking about FP and how he feels. And it started to become more about him, than about us."

Cake presses her paws against Fionna's cheeks and grins, smushing them together, "Right answer, baby."

The hissing of heat has them looking up. Marshall floats in, toting a backpack and Flame Prince spirals in a whirl of flames before coalescing beside them with his own back pack, and Fionna briefly wonders where he got that from.

"I hope you're ready, this night isn't gonna' last forever." Marshall grins, stealing a sandwich from Cake who scowls.

"Yup," Fionna says, glancing around their tree house one last time as they head to the door. There's no telling how long they're gonna be and as the others head out into the night, Fionna presses a hand against the doorframe just as her favourite little mechanical being enters the room, "BMO, keep an eye on the place please?"

The little robot grins, giving a thumbs up, "I will do, Fionna. See you later guys."

And with that brief farewell, Fionna closes the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys! Thanks for the amazing reviews! I love them all, sorry for the late update, having a serious case of writers block :( anyway, hope you like and keep giving me your opinions! I value them so much! Any constructive criticism is welcome! Love you all!

**Ninja edit: okay so further down in this chapter there's a situation, and I kindadrew a crappy drawing for it, it's incredibly bad but I hope you like it,lit might be worth reading the chapter too before you look at the image, as it will make a lot more sense seriously read the chapter first it will make loads of sense then :):) **

i . imgur BP5SBnh . jpg

Add a dot com and forward slash between the imgur and the BP5SBnh and take the spaces out and it should work! Apparently linking to imgur is not allowed so :( hope you get what I mean anyway

8:

The night sky shines down on the four adventurers, the waxy crescent of the moon casting an omniscient light across the ever expanding grass lands that seem never ending. A cool breeze flutters over Fionna's bare forearm carrying a fresh scent to it that cleanses her lungs and instigates a new sense of eagerness in her. It's invigorating, walking at night. It's so different from the day time, offering new sights and smells and sounds that energise the senses, teasing them with the thought of something new, something unexplored. Fionna despite her love for the day loves the night too, and she breathes in again with a smile. The cool breeze is chased off by the ever present heat of the Flame Prince, and Fionna's pretty sure that if he wasn't here it would be a lot colder. Marshall floats leisurely beside them, strumming his axe bass which he insisted he brings; after all, it is a few days walk. With a camping kit in tow carried by yours truly, they're all set for their mini adventure.

Flame Prince with the spit of flames that hiss when ignited disappears again into one of the forests that they're walking besides, his unadulterated curiosity urging him into the dark seemingly evil forests.

Cake rolls her eyes as the orange glow begins to dim behind the tall trees, their trunks obscuring Fionna's vision, "That boy has a death wish."

"I hear that kitty." Marshall chimes, humming in tune with his bass, "That forest right there, my friends, is the Forest of Haunted Souls."

"The people who thought of these names aren't very creative." Cake mutters, and Marshall pretends not to hear her as he goes on.

"He'll be lucky if he makes it out of there without attracting some kind of attention."

The shudder of the ground echoes Marshall's words and Fionna braces herself on instinct, a rumble, more like a growl following the shaking and Cake groans. Marshall adopts a smug grin.

"Told you so."

The orange glow that represents FP comes spiralling towards them, too quickly and wildly for the action to be voluntary and FP comes crashing to the ground, landing harshly on his back just outside the perimeter, a scowl on his face. The ground shakes again, physically lifting Fionna and Cake off of the ground with each tremor and FP grits his teeth. Fionna watches in unsure amazement as he stands, fists curled and flames crackling to life. Seconds later trees shake one by one to the ground, whatever creature Flame Prince disturbed makings its own path through the haunted forest.

A gnarled hand seemingly made of just skeletal fingers and ligaments pulls a tree down, easily the size of Fionna and she grabs for her sword, feeling the smooth grip as the creature emerges fully, a growl emitting from its abhorrent mouth.

Standing at least thirty feet tall, if not more, the beast is huge. A disgusting mockery of a skeleton, its hunched back cracks as it stands fully, and pitch black holes where its eyes should be begin to glow with an iridescent red light.

"Damn," Marshall mutters, "Flame boy sure knows how to pick 'em."

Fionna steps forwards, sword in hand, a scowl on her face as she braces herself. Rags hang on the beast, clinging to its bony frame. Its mouth is just a gnarled mess of bones that used to resemble teeth, or so it seems, they're all cracked and jagged like broken glass, and a tongue the colour of blank ink licks at one particularly sharp tooth.

Flame Prince grits his teeth as the creature swipes towards him, and Fionna lunges but it's for naught.

With a carefully exaggerated calmness, FP curls open his fist and flames dance into an inferno on his palm, consuming his entire hand until she can even feel the heat, at least a hundred yards away.

Flame Prince flicks his arm, the movement fast and measured and the ball of flames arches into the air with a roar that has Fionna clutching her ears, forgetting the sword for a moment as it clatters to the ground. Cake and Marshall follow suit as the fire ball crashes into the creature, a hideous snarl ripping its way out of its mouth as it clutches its chest. Within seconds the fire extends in a momentous gesture, Consuming the beast and it screeches, reaching out to the sky in a last attempt to escape the burning before its frame begins to wither into blackness, its extended arm billowing to the ground in a show of ash followed by its body, and the flames go out with a hiss.

"Woah." Fionna says.

"Yeah." Cake murmurs and Fionna picks up her sword with a grimace. Jeez, this is her favourite sword. A mental note never to drop it again.

"FP!" Fionna yells, running over to him. His flames begin to wither and he turns in surprise.

"That was awesome!" she breathes and a chagrined smile crosses his face.

"Even I have to admit that was pretty rad," Marshall says, examining the ashes with a raised eyebrow.

"Guys, we need to get going before another one of these... Things decide to turn up," Cake says, ever the intellectual one and the three follow her with grins. It's not long before they come upon an ideal camp site, a patch of land bordered by trees on three sides with a small parting acting as an entrance. Fionna sets up the tent quickly, Cake offering advice here and there from her perch on a fallen log.

"Ya know, if you helped me, we'd have had it up ages ago." Fionna mutters, rolling her shoulder with a grimace.

Cake adopts a snooty expression as she bites into her third sandwich, "If I helped, we'd probably be worse off; you know I'm no good on construction of thingies and stuff."

"You're grammar is particularly beautiful today, Cake."

Her sister scowls at the vampire, who sucks the red from a strawberry with a grin.

"I got us some wood."

They all turn to face the prince who is carrying a few logs currently on fire themselves. He plants them in the centre of the campsite and Fionna grins as the warmth reaches her, chasing the cold away.

Sitting in front of it, she pulls out her bag of marshmallows from her backpack. She wasn't going to indulge herself on these until the last night of the trip, but the fire just looks too good to waste. Cake hands her a wooden pick from her sandwich and she sticks a fluffy marshmallow on the end.

Flame Prince flops down beside her, crossing his legs. He's dressed differently, no longer in his princely attire. A plain short sleeved red t-shirt that hugs his chest and abdomen, and some dark black, well, as black as almost on fire can be, jeans. He rests a hand on his knee, turned upwards as he stares into the flames and a spark darts into his hands dancing on his palm with excited twirls if that were even possible.

"You look nice." Fionna says, cheeks burning as she sticks the marshmallow in the fire.

Flame Prince smiles, his cheeks also reddening, "Thanks, I decided I needed a change. The prince stuff was too... Formal."

"I hear that, that's why I wear this." she gestures to her ever present blue skirt and shirt and the thigh high socks.

He nods, smiling revealing a straight set of white teeth, "I like what you wear also."

Fionna blushes, pulling out her marshmallow, "Huh, thanks, uhm, have you ever tried roasted marshmallows?"

The prince raises an eyebrow in curiosity, "No I don't think I have."

"They're really nice, taste like... Caramel and sweetness."

She passes him the stick and laughs when it bursts into flames. Alarmed, the prince shoves the marshmallow in his mouth and Fionna guffaws as his eyes roll into the back of his head.

"Oh my glob this is amazing!"

Plucking out another one, Cake passes her another stick with an amused glint in her eyes. Thankfully, the pick FP set on fire has survived and he swallows the marshmallow with a groan.

"Here." Fionna grins, passing him another one and he places it on the end of the stick. Instead of sticking it in the fire, however, he creates a flame in his hand and roasts it in that. He quickly shoves it in his mouth and chews with a huge smile.

Fionna roasts her own, only much more slowly than the prince who picks up another one.

"These..." he chews on his third one with a grin and Fionna sniggers.

"Save some for the rest of us," Marshall slumps down opposite them and casts a glance towards the rising sun. The sky is turning from its inky black to darkened blue, and Fionna knows sun rise is coming. Which means Marshall needs to go to sleep.

Fionna rises to her feet, "Well, we have two tents so it looks like some of us are sharing." Fionna can feel the lethargy seep into her bones. She knows she'll regret the change in her inner time clock sometime in the future, but for now, night is waking hours, day is sleeping hours. With a stretch, she heads towards her tent.

"I feel like I'm dying of sleep deprivation, so I'm going to hit the sack, is that okay with you guys?"

Cake nods, still chewing on her sandwich and Marshall stands with a stretch too.

"I think I'll join you, baby cakes." he floats over to her and slings an arm around her shoulder, raising an eyebrow with a grin. She shoves his arm off and rolls her eyes.

"If you're tired Marshall, there's a tent over there with your name on it."

And with that, she heads inside. She knows when the sun rises because Marshall curses, moaning about how he's wasting his precious time constraint. It's easy to fall asleep, which is surprising considering Fionna's never been a night owl. In fact, before she was accustomed to adventuring in the dark, she hated it. The night Cake introduced the idea of vampires spirals into her thoughts and she chuckles, remembering Marshall's rude interruption and how he kicked them out of their - sorry, 'his' house. How so much has changed.

Her fingers travel gently across her head and she pulls her bunny hat off with a tug. Locks of blonde tumble down her back, wrapping around her frame. The sudden feel of her hair is like a calming notion to her, in her own privacy, this is the place where she can let go. Cake will be coming in soon, but Fionna doesn't bother with hiding her hair. Cake knows the reason why she wears the hat, she doesn't question it when she takes it off. Never has. Running fingers through the knots that have developed during their walk, Fionna hums to herself as the events of the night begin to unfold in her memories.

The most important being the creature Flame Prince defeated. It lingers in her mind, his untameable power. The shiver of worry that crosses through her stomach has her frowning.

Sure he's powerful, but that doesn't change who he is.

But just how powerful is he?

The question looms in the forefront of her mind, and Fionna swallows with a sudden nervousness. She never realised the potential havoc he could wreak with a flick of his wrist. Imagine if he were truly angered.

The creature earlier annoyed him, sure, but it didn't reconcile an all-consuming hatred that provoked Flame Prince into acting. No. He did so without even thinking about it. Burning the thing to the ground with what, a few seconds of charged power?

He's getting stronger.

The statement is frightening, a reality that Fionna isn't sure she wants to face. If he's getting stronger, he's also getting more unstable. Gumball's words echo through her mind, but the guilt accompanying her horrible thoughts has her grimacing. So many times he could've showed his truly evil potential, could've shown his inherited nature. His mother, after all, is one of the most evil creatures Fionna's come across, and the rumours, glob, the rumours travel far and wide, nobody ever visits the fire kingdom unless they don't want to leave.

He reminds her of Marshall, Fionna realises with a start. An evil being, fighting against their inherent nature. But Marshall is a thousand years old, he's had years to fine tune his blood lust, his personal demons.

Flame Prince is sixteen years old.

Eleven of those years he's been locked up, incarcerated for crimes he hasn't committed.

It's to these troubling thoughts that Fionna lies down and finally closes her eyes.

She dreams of fire, an uncontrollable rage that burns through her mind.

_Flame Prince:_

Flame Prince can feel it. He's felt it since they escaped, no, before they escaped. A bubbling river of power that's rushing to its crescendo, venturing from shimmering silence to white water rapids that coasts through his frame, consuming his every thought. Each electrical signal that passes from node to node instigates it, invigorates it until he is encompassed. It's happening slowly, he knows that at least. In a state of limbo, not sure which direction he must take in order to control it or unleash it, and the wrong choice could mean the end to his friends, his family.

It's trying on his brain, a constant battle to compress the destructive nature of his flames, a fragile dance that one misstep could mean all his carefully constructed walls come down.

An entity that's becoming harder to control and he can feel it now, curling through his limbs as he stands, attempting to alleviate the tension in his muscles.

It's becoming harder to maintain his calm demeanour too; the engrained polite nature is becoming tedious. For years his mother taught him that knowledge, and ability to access and use that knowledge is the greatest form of power, couple that with patience and the potential is unlimited. Your enemy's become doubtful of themselves; your allies become dependent on you for leadership.

For a while Flame Prince couldn't understand why his mother even bothered teaching him, as he would never be allowed out of his lamp. But as his intelligence grew, so did his understanding, the reasoning behind his imprisonment. There was some part of him that hoped that maybe, just maybe, they were wrong and he was just another fire elemental. But now he knows.

They were right.

He is unstable.

With a forced calmness he glances around the clearing, breathing deeply. He can hold it together, and even if he can't, he'll pretend to, for Fionna's sake.

She believes in him, and that scares him.

Marshall Lee watches him warily, and the prince rolls his eyes as the vampire floats over.

"FP, your flames are really bright right now." with his bass tucked across his back, Marshall Lee floats a safe distance away.

"I know," he glances over to the tent currently occupied by Fionna, "But I think I can control it, we just have to hurry and get this book."

The sympathetic look Marshall glances his way is annoying, and FP refrains from rolling his eyes once again.

"It will be fine."

He hopes.

_Fionna:_

The foot in her face is what wakes Fionna up, and she bats it away with a groan, the smell causing her stomach to roll in an entirely unpleasant way. The answering growl of displeasure has her scowling despite her sleep depraved manner.

"Oh shush, Cake, you had your dirty foot in my face."

"S'not dirty!" her sister hisses in reply before rolling over, effectively ending the conversation. It's dark outside, the sun no longer shining through the thin walls of the tents and Fionna clambers out, pulling on her bunny hat as she goes. Tucking the last few strands in, she glances around the clearing. Smoke rises steadily from the fire the night before, creating a thick smell of burnt wood that permeates the site.

Marshall's nowhere to be seen, which is entirely predictable in its own right, after all, the dude sleeps like it's the cure to all his ailments.

It's surprising, then, when she can't find FP. He isn't anywhere in the site and he's not in the other tent, she would see his flames through the walls. They really are that thin.

The hiss of his flames have her spinning around. With a degree of grace that only FP can pull off, he lands on the grass, hair burning bright as he raises an eyebrow at her. The night sky is no longer a looming oppressor, FP's flames lighting up the clearing.

"Oh." Fionna murmurs as he flies straight over to his tent, pulling it open. Fionna stifles a giggle as Marshall groans from inside, a grey arm batting at the parting.

"Marshall." Flame Prince sighs, dodging the flailing arm.

"G'way!" the vampire mumbles back.

"It's time to go." Flame Prince says, pulling the tent open further and dodging the now clawed hand. A growl emits the opening and Fionna raises her eyebrows as the vampire floats out, tugging on a shirt. His face is a transformed mess of demonic features and tiredness as he hisses at the Prince.

"Just because you're a prince doesn't mean I won't beat your-"

"Calm yourself," Flame Prince grins as Marshall growls.

"I am calm." he huffs, running a hand through his skewed hair, "It's just mad early."

Flame Prince looks astonished at Fionna, amusement lighting up in his eyes as the vampire floats snootily high, "It's nearly midnight."

"Exactly." Marshall huffs, and the yawning of a cat has them all turning. Cake emerges from their tent, scratching her ear with a disgruntled expression as she approaches them all.

"So... Who's taking down the tents?"

...

After wasting an hour arguing over how to take down a tent, a simple act in itself, they finally head off towards the wizards location. The grass eventually turns into sand that whirls in the growing winds, creating miniature tornados that spin around them with dramatic flourishes. Fionna grips her bunny hat, grumbling to herself as the wind lashes at her and the rest of them. Sand scratches her feet in her shoes and irritates her legs as they walk, and Marshall and FP simply fly above the ever present turmoil. Cake curls herself into Fionna's hat and Fionna has to scramble to keep it on her head.

"Marshall!"

The vampire floats inches above her head, cocking his head to the side, "Ya?"

"How much further?!"

"Uh... Not much?"

She attempts to scowl at him but that only results in sand entering her eyes. It's a gift when she stumbles onto her knees when reaching the abrupt change to cobblestones.

Well, not a gift, but anything is better than the sand. Pulling herself up with a degree of separation from the embarrassment, Fionna brushes her clothes down, grimacing as sand pummels to the floor. It looks like a town, the new place. A town of cobblestones and cream rock that makes up buildings, wooden roofs stretching down the streets. Clothes lines hang above the streets, shirts and socks ruffling in the wind sending droplets of water down on to the bystanders. Shop market stalls line either side, becoming the entrances to most of the houses.

There must be some kind of magic force going on here, because as Fionna backs away from the separation of sand and city, the sand froths and spits in whirlwinds, stopped by an invisible barrier from getting even one speck of sand on the cobbles. It's weird, and it's creeping her out.

Flame Prince appears seconds later, a grin on his face with his hands clutching something. It takes her a few seconds to realise it's glass. A glass sword.

He shakes his head and sand comes flying out of his hair, if that were even possible and he brushes down his clothes with one hand, holding the extremely sharp looking sword in the other hand. It gleams, even in the dark, the lights from the city reflecting and refracting through it, sending a spectrum of colours in all directions.

He hands it to her and she can only open her mouth in disbelief, running a finger down its smooth surface. She barely presses her fingertip to its edge, wincing when it cuts deep.

"Woah!"

Flame Prince grins, "The sand was melting around me, so I thought I'd better do something useful with it."

Fionna can only stammer, drooling over the rad sword. Her demon blood one and the glass one allows her to battle monsters that are immune to her other one, and without another word she wraps her arms around him.

The hug is short and quick, barely a hug at all as Fionna yelps and pulls away, still not learning her lesson.

"Thank you, FP, I mean... Wow."

Cake curls out of her hat at that point, and Marshall drops to the floor too.

"Okay, so his stall should be... Over..."

Marshall lifts off again, floating towards the street with fewer stalls in. They follow hesitantly, Fionna swinging her new sword lightly. It's even weighted well, the swing easy and flowing without using her own momentum against her.

Marshall stops abruptly and they crash into him.

"Guys! Come one, observation skills equals naught."

Cake huffs at the vampire as he floats towards a house not bordered by a stall. A quaint little thing, the window is hanging on by a single bolt and the paint is cracked, mottled with age. Slates hang off the roof and Fionna ducks her head as they walk through the doorway, the door seemingly non-existent here. Maybe they like strangers just walking into their house? Or maybe Marshall Lee has led them into another hare brained trap.

Either way, the little wizard that greets them is not a welcome sight to Fionna, not one at all.

Marshall was wrong; it's not a dude at all!

"Magic Woman!"

The green woman grins lewdly as they enter, wiggling her fingers, "Why Fionna, Cake! My favourite freaky fruits!"

"Marshall!" Fionna hisses, "What the junk?"

Marshall scratches his head, shrugging his shoulders, "What?"

"This is the crazy lady that got Cake killed one time!"

"Wait, Cake died?"

Shaking her head, Fionna braces herself with her new sword and Falme Prince, sensing the sudden change in atmosphere, stands beside her and braces himself also, flames charging into balls in his hands.

"Wait! I thought it was all behind us my little cherries!" with a magical flourish, the Magic Woman jumps into the air and curls above them, sparks shooting from her fingertips.

"You killed Cake!" Fionna shouts, charging.

The arm around her waist stops her before she can swing and Fionna growls as she's lifted into the air.

"Hang on Fionna, she might have some info on the book, you know, the thing we came for."

The words still her movements, and with a sigh she relaxes as Marshall dumps her back on the ground.

"Okay, okay."

Cake scowls at Fionna, but she can only shrug in response, raising an eyebrow.

_After._

Cake nods, as if reading her thoughts and they relax, as does FP with a guarded expression.

"Magic Woman... If that's your name," Marshall starts, "You owe me a favour, I'm here to collect that favour, and you know the rest."

The Magic Woman rests a hand on her palm, "Oh I believe I don't recall this, owing of a favour, but tell you what, since I don't want my head chopping off how about I give you the favour if you do a little thing for me."

Marshall, hearing this, begins to growl. Fionna can feel it, the change in him. She doesn't have to look over to know his face is no longer his own, but of a monster, of a demons.

"Wait, Marshall," Cake begins, "Before you slice and dice, let's hear the crazy out."

Magic Woman pretends not to hear the insult, "Yes Marshall, listen to the dessert."

Cake growls, claws out but Fionna presses a hand to her shoulder, "Hold it Cake, you just said it yourself."

Without further prompting, Magic Woman grins, "There's a ball tonight, proper dress and all that shenanigans."

Fionna pointedly glances at the woman's attire. It's not proper, by any means. A ripped yellow shirt with a backpack that's slung raggedly across her shoulders and a hat that's seen better days.

"I need y'all to go and pretend to like it, and then steal me this little jewel."

Fionna crosses her arms, "We won't steal for you!"

Magic Woman waves her hand, "Did I say steal? I meant take back, you see, it was mine in the first place, it was stolen off of _me!_"

"Oh," Fionna presses a hand against her head, "I'm gonna need some evidence, I can't just go around stealing some dudes jewellery."

"It's not stealing," she replies, but pulls out a picture from her backpack, "See, this is me on Mars, that's Abraham, and that's _my _jewel."

The little red triangle sits on the Magic Woman's neck, perched perfectly in the centre of her collar bone and Fionna sighs.

"Fine, I'll get your stupid jewel, and in return we want an exact location and method of getting something."

"What if I don't know?"

Fionna grabs her, her hands wrapping in her ripped shirt as she drags her to her face, "Then you'll find out."

Letting her go, Fionna steps back.

"Go on FP; tell her about your book."

With a raised eyebrow at Marshall that Fionna pretends not to notice, the prince goes into detail about the book, and Magic Woman nods as she listens. In less than half an hour, they have the details hashed out.

Fionna jumps to attention as Cake slaps her arm, blinking. She hadn't realised she'd started dosing off.

"Right then, I think I have an idea, but best be off with you! The ball's tonight and your current attire is well, hideous."

Fionna glances down at her clothes, scowling but Cake rolls her eyes at her.

"She's crazy, Fionna, crazy doesn't know fashion."

"Oh but I do." floating above them with a jump, sparks fizzle out of her fingertips and rain down on Fionna, Cake, Marshall and FP, coating them immediately. For a second the world disappears in a white haze, before coming back in a stuttering halt. Fionna feels sick and she tumbles, caught be incredibly warm, no, boiling hot arms that immediately let her to once she is upright. Ignoring the sting, Fionna blinks, feeling suddenly much heavier.

A quick glance down explains why.

A blue dress has replaced her previous clothes. It hugs her chest and waist tightly, the sleeves reaching her elbows. At her waist the dress flares out, white ruffles taking over the blue which parts like the red sea, flowing behind her. Her back feels cold, really cold, actually, and her neck feels tight. A bow is the reason why her neck feels this way, the magic woman has tied a frikking now around her neck! The actual bow is in the back, and thankfully she still has her bunny hat on although a lot more hair is escaping. The dress is backless, she realises, and Fionna jumps with a start.

Where's her backpack?!

The Magic Woman swings it on her finger, and Fionna grits her teeth, "Hey! Give me that!"

"Ah, ah, ah, this is like... Insurance. If you don't get me this jewel, I keep the backpack."

Her red sword sticks out one end and Fionna wants to stomp her feet. Oh glob. Her glass sword is in there too.

"Okay, okay, but can I at least have my swords?"

The Magic Woman considers this just as the boys groan simultaneously. Fionna turns, surprised to see they've also changed. Marshall's no longer wearing his original outfit, instead he's wearing some black trousers tucked into red boots, and a waist coat over his white shirt. The sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, but the thing Marshall's most ticked off about is his missing bass.

"Where is it?!" he pats his body down frantically, as if the makeshift bass would be hidden in his pocket or something. The Magic Woman laughs, wiggling her fingers and the guitar appears in the air.

"I'll have this too, as I said, insurance."

Marshall's face transforms, then, his back hunching as his teeth extend, wings bursting forth as claws rip their way into existence.

Fionna grasps his arm, shaking her head in sympathy, "She has my backpack too, dude, we'll get it back, don't worry."

This seems to quell his rage, and his wings recede as do the claws and teeth, "For her sake, she better hope we get them back."

It's then that they notice Flame Prince. A frown is the only tell-tale sign that he dislikes his new attire. And that's surprising, considering its the princely clothes they originally saw him in. The boots, the sleeveless arms, the dark cross that adorns the front of the orange suit. He looks like royalty.

"FP?"

He glances up at them, his fist curled, "Let's just go to this stupid ball and get it over with."

Cake mews in agreement, pulling on the pink bow that looks like it's been super glued to her head, "I second that, let's go."

The four leave to the laughter of the Magic Woman who throws tickets at them and Fionna's new glass sword, "And don't forget, nobody can know I sent you!"

Scrambling for the sword before it can the ground, she barely grasps it, sighing in relief when the smooth hilt hits her palms. Cake collects the tickets, a scowl on her face.

"I still don't see why we're doing this; let's just beat it out of her."

"Cake," Fionna says, brushing down her new over the top dress, "Let's just get this over with, and then we can beat her butt into talking, or we can just beat her up anyway."

Soothed by this option, Cake hands them all the tickets including FP, who plucks the ticket up with a raised eyebrow. It doesn't burst into flames.

"Where is it anyway?"

The four glance at each other uneasily. The ticket only has the time it starts, which is in five minutes.

"Who has a party so late anyway?"

Marshall floats above Cake, plucking at her bow, "Who has a party early, is the real question."

Swiping at him, Cake presses her other paw to her bow, "Yeah, whatever, party boy, just find the globbing place so I can get this stupid bow off."

Marshall inspects the ticket, face tight in concentration but before he can say anything Flame Prince points down the street, "I think it's that way, I can hear music."

Fionna listens, and she listens hard but the only thing greeting her ears is the still present calls of the shop keepers. Maybe this town is nocturnal. Who knows.

Fionna realises a few seconds too late that her shoes now have a heel and she stumbles, teeters her way down the street as the guys walk ahead. How is she supposed to fight any threats when she can barely walk? It's stupid and uncomfortable.

Grimacing the entire walk there, Fionna follows slowly behind them. Each turn in the street is abrupt, as if they've tried to pack an entire continent into one tiny patch of land. So many houses, so many twists, it's absurd and oddly beautiful. Fionna has seen cities like this in the books in the library. Books that have been preserved before the Mushroom War. Pictures of humans walking around cities with streets packed so closely together you wouldn't be able to walk through them, built on top of water literally. They used to row from street to street sometimes. Fionna would've liked to visit there.

And maybe she is visiting there. This place reminds her of it, somewhat.

Except for the water, that is. This place is as dry as the desert.

Finally they reach a strip of road that ascends up a hill, separate from the rest of the town. A castle sits at the top, a small one, but intimidating none the less. It boasts several spires that reach up into the night sky, as if scratching at the perpetual darkness, grasping and pinpointing the stars. It's pretty, in a unique kind of way. Lit up, the music can be heard now, a theatrical type music that reminds her somewhat of Gumball's parties.

She groans when they start to climb the path, feet aching, "Jeez, these shoes are horrible."

Hearing her complaint, Cake stretches up and pulls Fionna on to her back.

"Thanks," the effect is immediate, and Fionna relaxes the rest of the journey up the hill. Reaching the doors, Marshall indicates to pull out their tickets as they reach the grand entrance. Stairs lead up to the stone castle, lights bleaching the marble staircase a hot white.

The guard grunts at them, barely checking the tickets as they enter the impressive structure, gasping simultaneously as they see the inside. Dark, light, it comes together in dance for dominance, a huge dance floor filled with creatures all dancing, swaying lightly to the ball room music. The dimmed lights create a romantic atmosphere to say the least, as well as limiting their eyesight.

As they descend the stairs into the magnificent hall, equipped with a chandelier and everything, FP's glow becomes obvious. It overshadows anything else in the room, and Fionna becomes hyper aware of his presence.

He glances around the room, easily seeing over their heads. The majority of people here are about as tall as Fionna; however there are some at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Creatures standing at ten foot tall gracefully enter the room and sway their way around the dance floor.

"Right, Cake, you go left, I'll go right, we need to mingle, and you guys keep around the buffet area in case someone with the jewel comes for a break."

Nodding in agreement, the boys go to opposite ends of the buffet table and Fionna carefully traverses her way through the small crowd on to the dance floor. It's difficult, to say the least. Each jostle nearly sends her tumbling until a supportive hand captures her elbow, pulling her up with ease.

"Oh!" Fionna mumbles, the world jolting back into place. Her eyes are greeted with the presence of a guy. Standing just a few inches taller than her dressed in a black suit and tie, he looks down at her with concern. Eyes the shade of mahogany brown, he looks a lot like her, feature wise, except for the dark red skin. Black hair slicked back and fangs, he looks a bit like a demon.

"Are you okay, miss?"

His words have a certain lilt to them, an accent she can't place but it's assuring none the less, "Uh, yeah I think so, thank you."

"No problem," he grasps her hand, bringing it up his lips, "I am Alexander, and you are?"

Fionna can feel her face burning fifty shades of red, "Uh, Fionna."

He smiles, pulling her in close with a hand on her hip, Fionna can only help in surprise as he begins to sway them to the music, "That is a nice name, Fionna," he tests the name, rolling it across his tongue.

"I uh, I like your name too."

The situation is too weird, and Fionna can only sway awkwardly along with him as they delve deeper into the crowd.

_Flame Prince:_

The jewel is nowhere to be found, not a single person is wearing the stupid red thing on their necks at all, and it's grating on his patience. Folding his arms, Flame Prince leans against the table, a scowl on his face. How is he supposed to find this stupid thing if nobody's even coming to the table? It's impossible. If he could just, maybe send a fireball into the air to illuminate them for a moment he would have it. The though is sobering and he quells the urge to start a fire, instead focusing on the bowl of punch beside him. The water ripples from the movements of creatures on the dance floor, the music coaxing them into an easy sway.

"So, I don't know if you've noticed yet, but Fionna's being romanced by Mr demon over there."

Marshall's voice brings his eyes up and up until he can see him floating above the table, sucking the red out of a cherry. He lifts a lazy hand and points a non-committal finger to the opposite side of the room. Flame Prince follows the line of sight.

Something inside his chest begins to froth, rage at the sight, his stomach turning unpleasantly. Fionna dancing with some sleaze.

Fionna.

Dancing.

Not with him.

Gritting his teeth, he faces the vampire with a shrug, "And? Fionna can dance with whoever she wants to."

"Yeah but I thought you two were kind of a thing?"

Flame Prince scowls, looking anywhere but at Marshall or Fionna, "I don't know, it's confusing."

Incredibly confusing. He knows he likes Fionna, more than likes her, actually. She's bright, the sunshine to his darkness. Always happy, always helping. Selfless. And calming, so calming. Every time he's been angry she's always been there to soothe him, remind him of who he is. Not evil, not corrupt, even though he knows the truth, even though he knows he is evil. The creature he killed earlier was on a whim. He stumbled upon its home, and yes, maybe the creature did bat him out of the forest like an annoying fly, FP killed it. Isn't that the epitome of evil? Killing something when you provoked it in the first place?

Before he wouldn't have batted an eyelid at the thought of killing something. It was in his nature. Fire kills, it's obvious. His mother taught him that much. But Fionna makes him want to change. To calm his fire and not kill.

And when they kissed...

Flame Prince presses a finger to his lips, gritting his teeth.

What are they? They aren't friends, no; they must be more than friends.

"Well, if I were you, I would go show that guy who's boss, you feel me?"

FP glances up, chewing on his lip, "And if I do, Fionna will hate me."

"Nah she won't. She looks uncomfortable anyway, you'd be doing her a favour, you know, getting rid of that guy, you don't even have to kill him, just, move him. After all, Fionna's your girlfriend, isn't she?"

FP doesn't know what to say, they haven't exclusively said anything, and it's Fionna's choice who she wants to dance with. Yet the bubbling inferno inside of him is demanding he gets rid of this guy.

Without another word, Flame Prince grits his teeth, flames charging to life within him and appearing in his hands as he storms towards the dancing pair. They're smiling at each other, talking in low voices.

It doesn't matter though.

Fionna can choose who she dances with.

But that doesn't mean he can't help her choose.

_Meanwhile:_

Cake winds her way back up to the table towards the floating vampire, watching warily as the prince of flames makes his way suddenly into the dance crowd looking all types of angry. Perching on the table beneath the vampire, she extends a paw and grabs Marshall by the ear, dragging his floating bod down to her face.

"What the junk?!"

Glaring into the vampire's black eyes, Cake scowls, "What have you done, boy?"

Marshall grins despite the pain evidently radiating from his ear, "Nothing. Nothing at all."

Cake frowns.

"Okay, so maybe I did give fire boy a little push in the right direction, but come on, this place is so boring!"

The yelps of alarm bring their eyes up and over to the crowd and they both gasp.

"Marshall Lee!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi Guys! sorry I've been gone so long, a lot of stuff has been happening so I haven't been able to focus on this. but here you go! hope you enjoy, and add your opinions! I appreciate every single one, criticism and all! It helps so much! THANK YOU**

9:

"FP! What the junk?"

Fionna gapes as the flames simmer down, the cataclysm of fire consuming, quenching its thirst as Alexander groans from a hole in the wall a few metres away. Flames enshroud the blackened crisps bordering the hole, enough so that Fionna can't see inside the damn thing. She can only stammer, bluster before whirling on the hot headed prince, fists clenched. He isn't looking at her though, no, his red eyes are focused intently on the gaping hole, fists clenched and encompassed in flames. It takes him a few seconds to feel the burning gaze and he turns to acknowledge her finally.

"FP?!"

He blinks, "What?"

Fionna sputters, "What the junk was that about?!"

Alexander chooses that moment to emerge from the hole, fangs in full view as his skin begins to heal, swallowing the wounds. His suit heals too, a little unnervingly so and Fionna places a hand on her sword for security as he brushes away the wounds, dust and other non-sequential things as if it were a mere annoyance. His eyes turn black, his fangs drop down even further as he points a clawed finger at FP, words coming out gargled, "How dare you, child!"

FP doesn't even look away from Fionna as she glances nervously between the two guys. Alexander looks hella angry, FP remains unconcerned as he approaches her, flames dying down on his hands.

"He was... I don't know." FP finally supplies, running an agitated hand through his hair.

"Jealous little boy!" Hisses Alexander, "And a royal! How uncouth!"

FP finally acknowledges the guy he's just sent halfway across the hall, raising an eyebrow as the red demon approaches him until they are nose to nose. Alexander is a bit taller than FP, surprisingly and he glares down at the prince with a hiss.

"Woah Woah, let's cool it guys," Fionna says, stepping in between them as she shoves them apart. Whatever has gotten all up in FP's grill has definitely caused a rift in the party's atmosphere, a rift that's noticeable, to say the least, despite the huge hole in the wall that she's not quite sure how they can fix. Maybe they can get some wood after this is all over and border it up. Shaking her head, Fionna focuses back into the present, hand on her sword, "I'm sure FP is really sorry and begs your forgiveness, Alexander."

Alexander glances down at her, fangs retracting, "Then I must hear it from him."

FP sputters, eyes burning in affront, "Hell no."

Fionna glares up at him.

"No! I'm not apologising."

"Then so be it." Alexander hisses, stepping away, "Watch your back, flame boy, no amount of royalty will prevent this."

He turns into the building crowd and streaks off. Fionna watches his retreating back for a few seconds, feeling the warmth radiating across her back from FP. Jeez. What the junk?

"Fionna I-"

"No," Fionna snaps, turning, "Don't say you're sorry, because you're not, I can see it in your eyes, just explain to me why you pummelled Alexander with your fire magic or whatever."

He sighs, and Fionna can feel the sigh pull at her heart strings if that were even possible. The sigh is not one of annoyance, not one where FP is exasperated over her rage, but one aimed at himself. The earlier anger is replaced with, not regret, but something akin to it. Somehow she feels like he doesn't regret hurting Alexander, but hurting Fionna's feelings in the process.

"I don't know, I saw you dancing and-"

Fionna feels her cheeks heating up recalling Alexander's earlier statement, "You... You were jealous?"

FP shakes his head sharply, "N-No. It was just-"

"You were jealous." Fionna laughs, "Oh my glob, FP."

His cheeks begin to turn red like Fionna's and he scowls, "I wasn't jealous, he just looked sleazy and junk."

"Oh, he looked sleazy?" Fionna raises an eyebrow and FP scowls with a deep breath, his hands claiming her hips. They're warm, his hands. But not burning. He must be really exerting his control here. Fionna gasps as he pulls her close, close enough to feel his heat all over, but not too close that she burns. Suddenly the lights seem too intimate, too dimmed. It's scary as he starts to sway their bodies, his practiced steps encouraging hers, coaxing them into a clumsy yet comfortable rhythm that she soon picks up. Royalty, he's royal, he knows how to dance at such formal occasions. The thought clashes with the image of him imprisoned in the glass lamp. How can he dance when he was locked up?

As well as this, what about the huge globbing hole in the wall? The crowd is thinning, but some are still glaring at the hole and then at FP. Fionna doesn't think they have much time left here. Somebody is going to throw them out. Whenever security gets here, anyway. Speaking of which, where are they? Seriously there's a huge hole in the wall.

His warm breath on her neck is the tipping point and Fionna grips his arms, grimacing at the burn. It hurts, sears even, but not nearly enough for her to let go. Each easy sway swings them further into the dance floor, the dance slow and practiced and Fionna soon forgets the reason why they're here in the first place. Didn't they have to get the jewel? It doesn't really matter to her anymore. Who cares about a jewel when right now she could be dancing with the guy she has a crush on? Does she have a crush on him?

His mere presence sends butterfly's through her stomach, a waterfall of emotions that create rapids inside her. She's not used to it, not at all. It makes her crush on Gumball seem like a passing fancy, and she liked him for years! This is different.

It takes a close shave with a couple next to them to draw her out of her fantasy world, and Fionna blinks, focusing on the necks of the people surrounding them. Okay, so they are here to do a job, get the globbing jewel and then they can leave and hightail it to this book, FP can learn some amazing freaky powers and self-control, go and show everyone back home he's a changed guy and then all will be well.

So why does it feel like she's oversimplifying things?

What happens if FP goes crazy with this book?

It's a reality Fionna doesn't want to face, so she looks away, feeling the warmth seep through her skin, deep into her. Like a warm cup of cocoa.

"Maybe I was a little jealous."

His voice startles her, and Fionna grins, "Knew it."

The squeeze on her waist has her shivering.

The abrupt change in music has Flame Prince jerking to a standstill, and Fionna looks up in surprise as the faster tempo increases the rhythm of the bodies around them. She's about to question him when Cake twirls into view, her stretched head popping between them.

"Guys, I've got the jewel and we kinda need to bounce, the guys we got this off are not pleased." she holds up the aforementioned red jewel, swinging it lightly on her paw. Fionna glances back, stepping out of FP's arms to see the angry crowd glaring straight at them.

"Crap."

"Also, Marshall pushed the Gelatine Prince off the balcony."

Fionna glares at the floating vampire.

"What? I wanted to see if he'd splat."

"That's..." shaking her head, Fionna gathers the too big dress ruffles in her hands, kicking off the heels, "Never mind, we need to go!"

There's no need for further prompting and the four whirl on the dance floor, galloping straight towards the door. Fionna has never seen something look so far away, and the succession of footprints following them has her doubling her efforts. Feet skidding on the floor she barely skips up the steps.

FP throws fire at the door and the whole thing tumbles down into a cataclysm of rubble before them, barely enough time as Fionna launches herself over it.

The landing is rough and the gravel cuts deep into the soles of her feet but she grits her teeth, pulling out her glass sword as guards begin to rush on to the scene. Obviously the explosion of the door alerted them.

FP shrugs in reply to her accusing glare, arming himself with fireballs, "It seemed the quickest way."

Marshall floats over their heads, claws and fangs coming into view, "It was, don't listen to her."

"I didn't disagree!" Fionna snaps, watching as Marshall hisses at one of the guards who whimpers, dropping their wooden swords.

Cake stretches around three of the guards, cocooning them in a ball, "Guys! Who cares, let's just hightail it out of here."

The lady - well, creature they stole the jewel off bounds into view, her light green skin prickling like a hedgehogs as fangs come into view, "That's mine!"

Fionna kicks a charging guard in the chest, whirling on the woman, "No it isn't!"

"Yes it is! That's my necklace!"

Ignoring the calls of the woman, Cake throws Fionna the necklace, unwrapping from the guards and spinning them in the process.

Fionna catches it and begins to run. It's strange, really. One of the main reasons Fionna became an adventuress was because she liked the sense of exploring and achievement that came from it, the ability to just run and walk and dance her way into new situations whilst becoming a hero in the process. The untamed curiosity that fuels her encourages her, like right now. She never imagined that it could lead her to this, and some part of her still feels bad about doing this. Is she stealing? Can they really trust the Magic Woman after all she's done to the duo? The troubling thoughts race through her head as she runs, adrenaline rushes through her veins as her feet pound the ground, the reassuring footsteps of her friends following closely behind echoing in her ears. The end of the path is gift as they cross it into the town, the cobblestones proving a much easier task to handle than the gravel. Fionna darts through the narrow streets, barely avoiding the carts of food laid about.

"Fionna!"

She skids to a stop, grumbling at the accompanying burn in her feet. Great. Just great.

Cake pummels around the corner followed by the boys, both flying into view before dropping to the ground. Fionna and Cake are panting, the boys aren't. Fionna rolls her eyes at them as she braces her hands on her knees. The only reason they're not worn outs because they could fly!

"I think... We've lost them." Cake mutters, breathing deeply.

Fionna stands, still panting, "Cool... Good..."

"Jeez guys, you really need to start working out."

Fionna bats at the vampire, missing clumsily and he grins in reply, "You still need to explain why you pushed the guy off of the balcony!"

Marshall rolls his eyes, standing next to FP as if for support, "He's made of jelly, Fionna, I thought he'd... I don't know, recollect on the ground."

"And did he?"

Marshall sucks in air through his teeth, "Uh, well, no."

Shaking her head, Fionna holds up the jewel, "Well, we got it."

Cake coughs.

"Okay. You guys got it."

"Head back to the crazy lady?"

Fionna nods, placing the necklace round her neck. It feels cool on her neck and a cool rush passes through her, sending a shiver down her back. An unnatural thing, but Fionna ignores it. They're only five minutes away from the Magic Woman's place; the necklace can't do much harm in that short amount of time.

She hisses when she takes a step, however, feet aflame. The gravel has really done a number on her feet. Cake sees her grimace and stretches up, pulling Fionna on to her back.

"Girl, next time just ask for a lift instead of running like a crazy lady down the road."

Fionna nods with a sheepish grin, "Sorry Cake, I didn't realise."

The cat huffs in response as they quickly make their way back to Magic Woman's house. Her feet hum in pain the entire journey and Fionna has to resist the urge to rub them, do something. Marshall remains oddly quiet, his eyes glazed as he floats lazily beside them. Everyone's quiet, even Flame Prince who chooses to walk this time. Fionna watches from above, his heat reaching her even up this high as she stares down at him. A few paces ahead, he looks stiff, his shoulders tensed and his muscles bunched slightly, as if ready to pounce. Fionna rips off a piece of her dress, balling it up and throwing it at him. Not surprisingly it bursts into flames on contact but it grabs his attention and he turns, arm raised as if to strike before he blinks in confusion.

Fionna waves, nearly falling off of Cake in her haste and he glances up, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. It doesn't take a second longer for his flames to coalesce beneath him and he shoots upwards, hovering at her height.

"Fionna?"

Fionna swallows, suddenly nervous, "Uh, are you okay? You look tense."

He relaxes but Fionna has a feeling that he's doing it on purpose, "I'm fine, just thinking about that Alexander guy."

Fionna chuckles despite herself, "Oh yeah?"

He nods, crossing his legs. He floats inches above Cakes fur, easily maintaining his flames as he sighs, "Yeah, I mean, I guess I overreacted a little."

Fionna raises an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, a lot," he grins despite himself, "And it got me thinking."

"About?" Fionna pushes, crossing her own legs and ignoring the accompanying sting from her feet. Jeez, that's gonna hurt in the morning.

"About whether or not we should go ahead with this."

Fionna opens her mouth to object, to rectify his sudden change of heart but he holds up his hand.

"Hear me out, Fi," he creates a circle of flames in his hands, and Fionna realises that maybe that's his form of comfort, his way of easing his angst. Just like Fionna pulls on her bangs sometimes. It's a comfort, "This whole thing has escalated. I started out liking you when Cake first fooled me, and then I hated you, well, the Cake you. But then when I truly met you, I realised what a wonderful person you are."

Fionna blushes, pulling at Cakes fur in an attempt to hide her face.

"You've helped me from the start, built a home for me, busted me out of that pink guy's cell, busted me out of my mum's lamp," he grins, amused, "And then without even thinking about the repercussions for you, you agreed to go on this crazy adventure. An adventure that's for me, ultimately."

Fionna chews her lip in response, "It's because I like you FP, you're cool, and not at all like what they say you are. You deserve some help."

FP leans forwards, reaching out before stopping himself with a scowl, "I like you too, Fionna, I really like you. And that's why I think we should... I don't know, go home, go back. You're already hurt, and I have hurt you countless times. I don't want to be the cause of something bad. I'd rather face my own demons back home, where you and Cake can be safe."

Fionna blinks, "FP, we've made it this far. You are by no way the cause of my globbing feet, that's all on me."

He grins despite himself.

"I'm old enough to make my own decisions, and this is my decision, to help you. Just like it's your decision if you want to go home. I won't stop you, FP, but I do think we should keep going. Who cares if we get a few bumps and scratches along the way, we're adventurers, it happens," Fionna shrugs, grinning at him. It seems to cool his inner distress as he truly relaxes, not enough to ease the worry in her mind but enough for her to mock push his shoulder, hissing at the burn on her fingers. Seriously how many times does she have to burn herself before her brain recognises that they can't touch!

He grins though, and somehow it all seems worth it as she rubs her hand. Cake stops, shrinking abruptly and Fionna barely has time to right herself as her feet slap the ground. Swallowing her groan, she glares at her sister who widens her eyes in mock innocence.

Pulling off the stupid necklace, Fionna heads inside, not surprised to find the Magic Woman waiting, staring even, at the door. She grabs for the necklace but Fionna jerks it away, holding it at arm's length.

"Oh no, before you get this, where's our reward?"

Sighing, Magic Woman rubs her hands together, "Okay, so here's the thing, I have the info you're looking for but I need a little more time to validate it."

Fionna scowls, "Then I guess we'll be holding on to this for a little while."

Magic Woman shivers in distress, eyes on the swinging jewel, "Okay, okay, that's fair, II see, but keep it safe, please. Here's some of your things." she hands Fionna her bedrolls, all four of them.

Fionna holds the jewel to her chest, eyes narrowed. The Magic Woman is acting oddly prostrate, and it's freaking Fionna out. But she doesn't argue, instead nodding and moving towards the door, "When you have what we need, give us a call or something. And then we can exchange." she exits with a sigh of relief, fully expecting Magic Woman to perform some voodoo tricks in order to acquire the jewel, but when nothing happens, Fionna hesitantly heads over to her group of friends. They all stand to attention when she nears them, holding up the jewel.

"So it looks like we may be here for another day, Marshall?"

The vampire raises an eyebrow.

"Do you have any digs around here?"

"This sucks."

"Yeah, dude, even for you."

Marshall glares at the two adventuresses, "Well it was the best I could do on such short notice and if you don't like it then leave."

Fionna stares into the small, dank cave, hands on her hips. It's tiny, to say the least. The crevices fold in on each other, bunching up until only a few can successfully manoeuvre about inside. Cake shrinks, toddling off into the cave, admiring the running water that dribbles down the cracks from the ceiling, wriggling away with mindless abandon in an attempt to reach ground. Cake halts one of their journeys, pressing a paw against the wet wall and capturing a droplet on her claw.

"It's wet."

Marshall snickers and FP punches him in the arm, earning a scowl as the vampire rubs the healing burn, "Well duh. It's a cave."

Cake glares at him, eyes flitting between him and the innocent blonde adventuress only inches away, "Are you sure this is all you can get?"

"Sadly, yes, I'm not favoured here."

Cake raises an eyebrow, not surprised. Fionna enters the small abode, ducking her head as it quickly declines. They have their camping gear but unfortunately every side of the city is bordered by sand hurricanes stretching for miles, and plus they need to be close in case Magic Woman has news. It's pretty obvious if they suddenly set up shop in the middle of the town, so this is the best they could get, not too far from the centre and not too close to the windy desert. Fionna can hear the roar of the sand now, she can just imagine it. The sand, sweeping away at the very edge of the path, held by an invisible barrier. Shaking her head, she removes her bed roll, thankful that the floor isn't wet. The walls are, but they trickle down and out into small holes pocketed deep into the corners.

"No, this is great, not too far away, not too close." She offers with a small smile.

Marshall grins back, eyes closed in pride, "You're welcome."

"FP, you'll have to stay away from the walls though."

Flame Prince glances towards her, nodding, "Uhm, yeah, okay." he reaches out to one of the closer walls, his fingertips grazing its glistening exterior. The accompanying hiss as his fingers turn grey has both of them wincing, Fionna raising her brows in confusion.

"Well I'm staying with pretty boy over here, where I won't get wet," Cake hisses, for once choosing to be beside the flaming prince. She curls into herself at his feet, eyes narrowed at the walls.

FP smirks, collapsing to the floor and crossing his legs.

"Well, I'm going to get some shut eye at the back, as soon as we have the info we leave, okay?"

Fionna nods as Marshall glides past them, pulling out his own bedroll before collapsing into it with an exhausted groan.

Fionna yawns too, lying down with a sigh. Her feet throb, but she's pretty sure they'll heal by morning. Since they don't have their stuff, she'll have to sleep in the stupid dress, at least it's warm. Fionna rolls to her side, facing the prince who is conjuring flames. Small kitten like fire puffs begin to dance around Cake, as small as Fionna's fingernail and she chuckles as Cake bats at one of her ears, narrowly avoiding the prancing kittens. They disappear at the sound of her voice and Fionna looks up, blinking to see FP rolling out his own bed roll next to hers. Literally. He's a hair breadth away and Fionna no longer needs the dress for the warmth, he provides a roaring flame, a soothing warmth that seeps through her very bones. He slumps down next to her, his flames barely singing the roll. It's not entirely fire proof, but it is enough so that he doesn't burn the glob out of it.

Fionna doesn't move, doesn't breathe as he shifts to face her rolling onto his side, mirroring her as he rests his head on an out stretched arm.

Their faces are inches apart, his heat searing her face, making her skin tingle. He provides the only light she needs, right now.

His smile, he dazzles her as his lips curl up, causing hers to twitch in response until she's smiling also. They don't have to say anything, no, no words are needed as his heat begins to smoother her, lull her. It's not long before both their eyelids droop, barely holding on to the last remnants of consciousness and they fall asleep, looking into each other's eyes.

Fionna is startled into consciousness, her whole body burning up as if she's having a sudden fever attack, Cake warned of them once, a while ago. It's funny; actually, she said that a fever comes about when girls talk to boys. This is literally the case as Fionna shifts, feeling FP's arms wrapped tightly around her middle, her back to his chest. He's really, really warm, and sweat dots her forehead. An occasional breeze sweeps through her hair, cooling her but the constant warmth overheats her. The only possible reason she can come up with as to why he's not burning her to a crisp is that he's asleep, relaxed. The ultimate state of relaxation, actually. Despite the stifling heat, Fionna smiles, chest growing warm in its own entirety. Butterflies begin to hammer at her stomach as she snuggles deeper, burrowing herself into his chest as she shift, rolling over, careful not to wake him. As soon as she's facing him she sighs, wrapping her arm around his waist, too. It's almost too hot, but she ignores it. She's been in worse situations. A hell of a lot worse. His chest is smooth, hard against her forehead as she rests against him, for once not burning, not in pain. It's weird, scary but altogether amazing.

It's then that she falls back to sleep, wrapped up in her crush. And she can say that now.

Fionna has a major crush on FP.

"Aw, my baby's falling in lurve."

"That's so lame," followed by a snigger.

Fionna blinks, eyes unfocused as the voices continue to gossip only inches away from her. All she can see is a whole lot of FP. And he's hot, really hot. So hot in fact, as he blinks his eyes open too, Fionna pushes against him, gasping in the cool air behind her as the word begins to melt and churn. It takes a few seconds of desperate struggling before FP clicks, and he shoves her away, apologising as he does so. Fionna careens across the floor, cool stone barely making a mark on her now burning skin.

How come he burnt her?!

He was fine throughout the night!

Seconds pass by at a lazy pace, Fionna's skin still burning until finally the horrid heat relinquishes its hold, the cold finally making a dent in it. Fionna pants, hands clutching her stomach as she rolls to her front, picking herself up with care. Each move sends a blistering wave of pain through her and Fionna whimpers as her knees shake. Cake rushes forwards, paws digging deep into her fur, rummaging about in her stretchy body before producing the clear glass vial.

"We are seriously low on this," She mutters before grasping Fionna's jaw, cocking her head back forcefully and letting a drop fall onto her tongue. It takes a few minutes, but soon the burns are healing up nicely, almost non-existent as she turns to FP.

Stricken, he's still sitting on the floor, eyes wide, arms bracing his weight behind him. Fionna attempts to laugh it off, stepping forwards but he stops her with a fierce look, eyes burning red with self-loathing as he stands, brushes himself down before exiting the cave, fists clenched, back straight. Fionna watches him go with a drop on her stomach that she doesn't know how to interpret, beseeching Cake with silent eyes who shrugs in response.

Marshall shrugs when her eyes meet his, mirroring Cake before he jerks his thumb over his shoulder, "I'll, uh, go see if he's okay."

Fionna can only nod, blinking as the last twitches of pain leave her body and mind. Cake shrinks and climbs up to perch in the Adventuresses pocket, her head sticking up over the top.

"Maybe it's best just to have a look around this town, see what's on offer whilst Mr hot head cools down."

Fionna presses her lips together, running her fingers along the grip of her sword, "Okay, do you think he'll be okay?" she has to hide her chuckle. Here she is, the one who was burnt, wondering if the burner was okay.

"He'll be fine," Cake says, waving a paw, "All boys have these tantrums, heck, look at Marshall Lee, he has about three a day, on average."

Fionna grins despite herself, heading out of the cave. They're nowhere in sight, so she heads towards the town, ignoring the dropping sensation. He'll be fine. Cake said so herself. And whatever Cake says, is, so it will all be okay in the end.

The shops are quaint and colourful in the daylight, the sun casting rays of happiness through the sandy town. Merchants sing their enticing tunes and Fionna has lost count of the many times she's had to pull gripping hands off of her arm as they try to drag her towards their stall. Spotting an inn, Fionna heads towards it, suddenly feeling a whole lot grungier than before. Cake looks up in questioning, her ears perking up.

"I thought we could maybe rent a shower or something," Fionna says, lifting her arm discreetly, "I mean, I stink."

Cake chuckles, "Yeah you do. But first we need to get you out of that darned dress, it's all burnt up and junk."

Fionna glances down at herself then, only just realising she's been gallivanting around this small town in a tattered dress, the remains barely concealing anything. Blushing, she nods as they quickly pick out a blue skirt and top, similar to her old ones, exact replicas, probably, paying for them before searching the inn. It's small, to say the least, but welcoming. A frail woman, about two feet tall, entirely pink smiles at their request, waving away any thoughts of paying, stating the showering facilities were no trouble. Cake still leaves a tip as they walk away, though, easing the guilt in Fionna's mind.

Showering is a god send, and so are the new clothes. They offer comfort and morality, and Fionna pulls on her bunny hat feeling a whole lot better than before.

Cake nods, eyes searching her up and down as she produces a pair of thigh high socks, "The outfit just doesn't seem right without these."

Fionna pulls them on, eyes narrowed, "I didn't see you buy these?"

Cake laughs it off, climbing back into her pocket as they wave goodbye at the old woman, exiting back onto the street, "I always keep an extra pair, honey, you know that. The amount of times you've gone through them, I had to."

Fionna rolls her eyes at her sister. Always the caretaker. Despite her sometimes immature ways, to put it lightly, Cake really is the caretaker of the family, the responsible one when push comes to shove. Fionna knows she can rely on her sister, in times of stress, happiness, fear, pain, sadness, Cake has always been there to pat away her tears and fight away the scary monsters. Smiling, Fionna makes quick work of their journey back to the cave, surprised to see Magic Woman standing outside, her ripped shirt revealing a new belt of pockets. She scuttles up to Fionna, eyes wide as she hands her a scroll tied with a red ribbon. Without an explanation, or listening to Fionna's questions, she throws her backpack at Fionna's feet, grubby fingers digging into Cakes fur. Cake yelps in response, but it's for nothing as Magic Woman pulls the necklace out, eyes alight and simply disappears.

Poof.

Gone, just like that.

Fionna stares at the empty space, eyes wide, unblinking. Sometimes, sometimes, magic freaks her out. It's silly, really, but when confronted with it in such an abrupt, uncensored way, Fionna's mind short circuits for a few seconds before rebooting. Cake once said it was because she was human. Humans, before the mushroom war, never believed in all the hocus-pocus, that science and technology was the thing of the day, magic was a myth, a fairy tale. It's instinct, Cake said.

Said cat climbs out of her pocket and inspects the back pack, eyes narrowed, "Yeah, I think it's all here."

She throws the back pack and Fionna catches it, sighing as the familiar weight settles on her back. Jeez, she's missed her back pack. All of her belongings, well, most of the important things anyway, rest in this little green thing. That reminds her; how's BMO? They've been gone for a long time now, and usually the little robot is okay but Fionna is starting to worry for her favourite little mechanical bot.

Cake scurries up Fionna's body, pulling the scroll out of her hands and perching on her shoulder as she unravels it.

"Oh, Fionna baby, it's-"

"-Mine." Marshall snatches it out of Cakes paws, floating away from her with a smirk as he reads the scroll.

"They're coordinates. Latitude and Longitude, specifically."

Cake scowls at the vampire, "I was just about to say that."

Fionna reaches for the scroll only for Marshall to frown at her, pulling away, "Hey!"

"Fionna, you can't read coordinates, in fact, none of you can, I however, because of how awesome I am and just generally knowledgeable, know how to."

The heat searing across her back has her turning, her eyebrows shooting up as she sees the prince himself, composed.

"I can read coordinates." FP says, neither acknowledging Fionna nor ignoring her.

"Yeah, but you're on fire, so, shut up."

A scowl flickers across FP's face as he regards Marshall, but he doesn't say anything, instead waiting for Fionna to speak. He finally glances her way, his eyes glazed, uninterested. No recognition sparks to life, no adoring gaze she had become accustomed to, nothing but polite interest. It doesn't sit well with her, and her stomach drops as she rambles off a plan.

"Okay, Marshall, since you insist on keeping the scroll, can you get us there?"

Marshall's mouth twists to the side, "Of course, but it comes at a price."

Fionna groans, "Oh come on, Marshall you're my friend, surely that's enough."

The vampire pauses then, truly pauses, regarding Fionna with an emotion she hasn't seen from him before. It's gone before she can analyse it, and he nods.

"Okay, you have one we're-friends pass, after that anything y'all want requires a little give and take."

Fionna, glaring menacingly, nods anyway. Glad to be finally doing something.

Packing doesn't take long, and soon they head back into the desert storm, the world disappearing in a blur of particles the colour of gold. But its white noise allows Fionna to finally think. Think about the mess they are getting themselves into. Think about home, about their parents. And most of all, think about the flaming prince who seems to have taken a turn, changing the dynamic of their relationship with only one, cold, calculating stare.


End file.
